Managing director Jason Noble confirmed the acquisition, which sees the One International brand established in both Cape Town and Johannesburg, took place at the beginning of September.
Sterling Associates is a relatively young company, having been established by managing director Gary Bloxham and chief investment officer Cindy Lee Schuster less than one year prior to One International’s acquisition. The company has six qualified and regulated advisers with two supporting staff.
“Our plan is to, particularly at first, make a number of strategic acquisitions so that we have partners based in a number of key regions,” said Noble.
“In view of this we are also considering a number of other strategic acquisitions which I hope to be able to discuss soon.”
"Dirty tricks"
Noble also moved to quell rumours of upheaval at his company. He confirmed that, while it was true a team of six advisers had left his Dubai office, speculation the company’s licence had been revoked were untrue and were part of a “dirty tricks campaign” orchestrated by competitors.
One International was supposed to have gained an Insurance Authority licence in April this year as part of its acquisition of insurance brokerage, International Insurance Services.
However, Noble said the transfer of the licence from the acquired company to One International had not yet been completed but was “imminent” and that in the meantime the company’s business had been put through a third party, which he declined to name.
“I set up One International with the express intention of raising standards in a market in which lots of very poor sales practices go unchecked,” said Noble.
“From day one we have tried to up the standards of what goes on but there are an awful lot of very poor quality advisers in this part of the world and they all learn very bad habits from less scrupulous employers. It is unfortunate that some advisers do not share my desire to better standards.”
