Hampshire-headquartered Harwood Wealth Management had a very proactive 2020 as it entered into five M&A deals with financial planning companies in the UK.
The businesses are Cameron Lewnes in Cornwall; Portcullis Wealth Management in Hertfordshire; Russell Marlow; Hazelwood Investment Services in Northampton; and certain business assets and clients of London-based Argentis Financial Planning, the wealth division of insurance company Arthur J Gallagher.
The latter is the largest acquisition to date for Harwood, adding 5,000 clients. The groups’ total number of financial planning customers is now over 15,000.
It was finalised in December, but no details were provided about when the other acquisitions were closed.
The financial terms of all five deals were also not disclosed.
The acquired companies add approximately £6m of revenue, more than 20 employed financial advisers and around £1.25bn ($1.7bn, €1.4bn) in assets under administration (AUA).
The wealth firm now counts more than 100 advisers.
Strong M&A activity despite pandemic
In March 2020, Harwood was sold to Hurst Point Group, a portfolio company set up in 2019 by The Carlyle Group, to facilitate investments.
Neil Dunkley, head of financial planning at Hurst Point Group, said: “We are very pleased that, despite the disruption of the pandemic, we have managed to complete five financial planning acquisitions since the acquisition of Harwood Wealth.
“We have brought a number of very talented individuals into the team and are able to provide them with the central support which is so needed during uncertain times.
“It is particularly pleasing to have completed the transaction with Argentis in December, our largest deal to date. We remain ambitious and are excited to continue our successful buy-and-build strategy with quality IFAs going forward.”
