Edinburgh-based financial advice firm Mearns & Company has completed a management buyout that looks to maintain its family ethos.
The business was founded in 1994 by Margaret Mearns.
Her son Malcolm Steel and daughter Catherine Bell have bought the business along with client services director Graeme Brown and financial planning director Graeme McInally – as the business looks towards “a new era”.
Bell is managing director and Steel is client strategy director.
Mearns & Company serves majority of its clients in Edinburgh and the central belt. The employee benefits side of the business also has clients in Aberdeen and London.
The financial terms of the MBO were not disclosed.
Privately owned pride
Bell said: “There is an ever-reducing number of independent financial advisory firms in the market, due to consolidation in our sector. Mearns & Company prides itself on being privately owned and well-placed to provide a consistent and personal service to our clients.
“We have built a values-based business that provides our clients with trusted, expert services, while making a positive difference to their lives and their businesses.”
She also said that the focus of the leadership team would be on driving innovation and nurturing the company’s “positive people culture”.
Counterbalance
Steel told International Adviser that while it’s a changing of the guard, it’s business as usual.
He believes that by keeping your focus on your clients and your staff, everything else takes care of itself.
Steel also said that the benefits of the family business are the strong sense of culture and identity, which is reassuring to clients, who are confident that the founder’s values will continue in the way the business does things.
He added that also having two people on the buyout team who are not family members is a good counterbalance.
In June 2022, International Adviser spoke with Victoria Hicks, managing director of M&A consultancy firm The Exit Partnership, about the rise of management buyouts and employee ownership trusts.
