Listed accountant aggregator CountPlus is intensifying its hunt for large accounting firms to buy, as it shores up plans to publicly float its new sister company in 2017.
Executive chairman Barry Lambert said the group was actively speaking to a number of acquisition targets, which would ultimately be housed in a new listed venture currently being called C+2.
Under the C+2 business strategy, CountPlus acquired a 25 per cent stake in Adelaide-based professional services firm Hood Sweeney last year and hopes to make further purchases in the next 12 months. The C+2 model is a deviation from the traditional CountPlus model, which focuses on small “tuck-in” acquisitions.
CountPlus, which is 37 per cent owned by Commonwealth Bank-owned financial planning group Count, made nine small “tuck-in” acquisitions in the last 13 months.
Lambert said the C+2 model was a better model for large firms and would compete with the likes of WHK for large, quality businesses with over $2 million in revenue.
The group paid $3.75 million in cash for its stake in Hood Sweeney, with further performance based payments over two years.
He said while C+2 and CountPlus were both aggregators of accounting practices they were interested in different businesses.
He described the relationship as “co-opetition”.
“We’re now heavily promoting our offer and a number of firms have approached me about C+2,” Lambert said.
“There’s no shortage of smaller firms and principals looking for a buyer but there are much fewer quality large businesses.”
Lambert’s comments followed the release of CountPlus’ 2013 full year results last Thursday, which featured a 2 per cent drop in net profit after tax to $11.08 million despite a 3 per cent increase in member firm net income of $20.15 million.
The board also announced a 3 cent interim dividend to be paid on November 15.
Lambert, who founded CountPlus and its majority shareholder Count, and later negotiated their sale to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in 2011, will end his formal relationship with the CBA on January 20, 2014. That date is 50 years to the day that Lambert joined the bank as a graduate in 1964.
