Kingswood Holdings make £4m acquisition and targets extensive pipeline of deals

UK-based wealth management firm Kingswood Holdings has struck a deal to acquire financial advisory Admiral Wealth Management for £4 million. The deal is Kingswood’s first acquisition of 2021, but the firm has a strong pipeline of further takeovers that it is targeting.

Admiral is based in Lincolnshire and serves individual and corporate clients, mainly across Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. The firm has around 600 clients and £100 million in assets under management (AUM), which will bring Kingswood to £6.2 billion AUM post-acquisition.

The sale comes as Admiral founder and Chairman Peter Waller and Director Carol Waller retire. Going forward after the acquisition, current Director Michael Biggin and Senior Consultant Adam Harrison will lead the firm as part of the wider Kingswood group.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval, after which the £4 million cash consideration will be payable over two years. Around £2 million will be paid upon the closing of the deal, with the remainder payable in deferred considerations, with some subject to performance-related targets.

Following the acquisition of Admiral, Kingswood has an extensive pipeline of UK acquisitions. These include five targets in which “heads of terms” have been agreed and the deals “are at various stages of due diligence”. Kingswood is also in negotiations with four further targets and has had “positive initial conversations” with an additional nine potential acquisitions.

Discussing the acquisition of Admiral, Kingswood UK CEO David Lawrence said: “I am thrilled to announce our first acquisition under my leadership and look forward to welcoming Mike Biggin, Adam Harrison, and the Admiral team to Kingswood. Admiral is a highly regarded provider of financial advisory services in North Lincolnshire and Yorkshire having consistently delivered a high-quality service to clients for over 30 years.”

Regarding the firm’s future growth plans and acquisition pipeline, Lawrence said: “We have a clear growth plan and with the investment made in 2020, now have the capability and capacity to deliver on this. Our immediate focus is to deliver operating margins in the UK more than 30 per cent and a cost-to-income ratio of less than 70 per cent.”

“In the UK, organic growth will remain a key pillar of our strategy, though we will also continue to actively acquire firms that have a great cultural fit for us, can help accelerate growth and bring greater scale and capability to our wealth planning, investment management businesses. “


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