International wealth and investment manager Kingswood Group has confirmed it is in discussions over a potential sale of its UK business.
This comes several days after the firm completed the acquisition of Dublin-based financial advice group Moloney Investments.
Alternative Investment Market-listed Kingswood said in a London Stock Exchange update on 6 March that it confirms media speculation that it is working with investment banking company Houlihan Lokey to discuss strategic options for its UK business.
It added that this is not limited to, a “potential sale or third party investment” into Kingswood’s UK business operations.
“There can be no certainty that any transaction will ultimately occur, nor to the structure or terms on which any transaction might take place,” the firm said.
Original media reports in the Sunday Times about the proposed sale also stated that the firm’s US holdings would remain under the main group. But the report did not mention the newly-acquired Irish arm.
Acquisition-crazed
The wealth manager has been an active player in the UK M&A market with 10 deals in 2022, including the purchase of Cheshire-based JFP Holdings, the parent company of JFP Financial Services, for £12.4m ($15m, €14.3m).
In October 2022, the firm also secured a debt facility worth a possible £150m with an unnamed ‘leading global financial institution’.
It said at the time that the funding will bolster its strategic growth plans and provide additional capital to fund future acquisitions, as well as pay existing deferred considerations.
Kingswood has not focused all of its time on M&A deals, as it recently launched an Aim inheritance tax and Isa portfolio service.
The discretionary investment management service offers both income and capital growth within a structure designed to mitigate IHT liability after two years.
The company has not yet announced its results for last year. But in its 2021 annual results, the international wealth and investment manager reported revenues of £149.7m, a staggering 488% rise from the previous year.
Assets under management and advice rose 15% to £6.8bn during the year, of which two-thirds was driven by organic growth with the rest via acquisitions. Operating profit recorded a nearly eight-fold increase, hitting £6.3m up from £800,000 in 2020.
