Acquisition and New Managed Portfolio Service

RNS Number : 7468O

Kingswood Holdings Limited

01 February 2019

 

1 February 2019

KINGSWOOD HOLDINGS LIMITED

("Kingswood" or the "Group")

Acquisition of Thomas & Co and Launch of Managed Portfolio Service

Kingswood Holdings Limited (AIM: KWG), trading as Kingswood, the integrated wealth management group, has continued its expansion with the acquisition of Thomas & Co Financial Services ("Thomas & Co"), an Oxfordshire based financial advisory firm (the "Acquisition"). Furthermore, Kingswood has also announced the launch of its enhanced Managed Portfolio Service.

The Acquisition

Kingswood has acquired the Thomas & Co book of business for a maximum cash consideration payable of £3.3 million (the "Consideration"). The Consideration comprises an initial cash payment of £1.5 million and a further deferred sum of maximum £1.8 million which is subject to the achievement of revenue and profitability metrics over a three-year period.  For the year to 31 December 2017, Thomas & Co generated a profit before tax of £0.46 million. The Acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings accretive to the Group, with future income growth anticipated from additional revenue enhancement and cost synergies.   

The Acquisition is another major step in Kingswood's strategy to become a leader in the UK wealth & investment management market and build a nationally recognised brand. It follows the acquisition of Independent Financial Advisers, Marchant McKechnie in October 2018 and illustrates Kingswood's ability and commitment to convert its strong pipeline of deals into accretive additions to the Group.

Based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Thomas & Co offers a wide range of services to its clients, including personal and company pensions, investments, and tax planning. Thomas & Co serves around 500 clients and has approximately £150 million of assets under advice (AUA).  The principals and staff of Thomas & Co, who will join the Group as part of the Acquisition will continue to operate from its existing office in Abingdon.

Kingswood now has more than 4,500 active clients, and AUM/AUA of £1.9 billion. The Acquisition broadens Kingswood's UK footprint, adding to its existing office network in London, Manchester, Cheltenham, Maidstone, Worcester and Beverley.

Gary Wilder, Group Chief Executive, Kingswood, said: "Our integrated wealth and investment management platform provides Kingswood with a strong competitive advantage and enables us to drive growth initiatives under a common brand. Our strategy remains firmly focused on seeking opportunities, domestically and internationally, to drive growth in revenue and assets under management and advice, through acquisition and by attracting best in class wealth and investment talent to the Kingswood platform. We have a strong pipeline of opportunities we are currently evaluating. Access to products such as our enhanced Managed Portfolio Service, which we have also announced today, as well as the rigour and discipline of our investment process, makes us an attractive partner to firms such as Thomas & Co. I want to welcome the excellent team at Thomas & Co to Kingswood, and we look forward to working with them."

Joe Berry, Founder and Principal of Thomas & Co, added: "Kingswood is a very similar firm to us, with a strong commitment to protecting client's wealth and providing first-class advice, with the emphasis on face-to-face personal service.  They also give us access to an array of innovative investment products and services beyond those readily available to our private clients."

Launch of Kingswood's Enhanced Managed Portfolio Service

Kingswood has also announced the launch of its Managed Portfolio Service which is a range of discretionary managed, risk-rated model portfolios. For each risk profile, Kingswood are offering a choice of strategies such as income generation, passive investment and ethical investments. The portfolios will be available on the key platforms used by wealth planners in the UK at very attractive pricing.

Patrick Goulding, Chief Executive of Kingswood Investment Management, commented: "Our Managed Portfolio Service delivers a highly effective investment solution to clients across a range of risk levels. This service is a core initiative for the Group in the UK and, over time, in the US.  It has been available through our internal platform for five years and has an established track record.  Given this record and the current demand for such products, we believe this is an ideal time to distribute it more widely."  

Richard Stammers, Chief Investment Officer, Kingswood, added: "This is an actively managed solution for our clients which, in current uncertain times, gives them the confidence that their money is being properly protected. This protection is evidenced by the outperformance of each of the strategies against our peer group during the market turmoil seen in recent months".

Kingswood is also looking at other investment product offerings across Fixed Income and Alternatives in key asset classes including Private Equity, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Hedge Funds, Liquids & Credit.

The information communicated in this announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.

No statement in this announcement is intended to be a profit forecast or estimate and no statement in this announcement should be interpreted to mean that earnings per share of the Company for the current or future financial years would necessarily match or exceed the historical published earnings per share of the Company.

For further details, please contact:

Kingswood Holdings Limited	[phone]
Gary Wilder / Patrick Goulding	www.kw-wealth.com
finnCap Ltd (Nomad and Broker)	[phone]
Ed Frisby / Scott Mathieson / Anthony Adams (Corporate Finance) Tim Redfern / Richard Chambers (ECM)
Newgate Communications (for media)	[phone]
Robin Tozer / Fiona Norman

 

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