AZ NGA today signed a binding sale and purchase agreement to acquire 51% of the capital of RI Toowoomba (“RIT”). The agreement includes a share swap of 49% of RIT’s equity for AZ NGA shares and a progressive buy back of these shares over the next ten years.
AZ NGA was established in November 2014 and is part of Azimut Group, Italy’s leading independent asset manager, established in 1989 and today operating in 14 countries with more than € 35.3bn in AuM (equivalent to A$ 52.3bn).
AZ NGA spent the first quarter of 2015 fine tuning its offer to quality financial planning firms with the first agreement closed in May. Since then seven deals have been announced across Australia taking AZNGA’s combined funds under advice to $A1.8 billion in eight months.
According to AZ NGA CEO Paul Barrett “Our offer has been well accepted by quality financial planning firms due to our flexibility in approach, mix between solving succession planning and growth, and long term nature”
So far the deals completed are:
. Eureka Whittaker Macnaught (Sydney & Brisbane)
. Pride Advice (Adelaide)
. Lifestyle Financial Planning Services (Victoria)
. Financial Lifestyle Partners (Melbourne)
. Wise Planners (Sydney)
. Harvest Wealth (Victoria)
. RI Toowoomba (Toowoomba & Ipswich)
AZ NGA’s latest partnership with RIT further expands its footprint into Queensland. RIT has been operating since 1992 and is led by Jeff & Linda English. In that time RIT has amassed $A260 million funds under advice and has become a highly profitable and well recognised business. Jeff has been heavily involved in the Proprietor’s Advisory Council over the last decade and is a regular member of RI Advice Group’s high performer program “Platinum”. RIT us a dual branding strategy using the “Retireinvest” moniker to attract retirees and pre-retirees, as well as the “RI Advice” brand to attract a younger clientele.
The closing of the transaction is expected to occur in January 2016 upon satisfaction of some conditions precedent provided in the sale and purchase agreement. RIT operates under the Australian Financial Services License regime overseen by ASIC; the acquisition is not subject to the approval of the local authority.
Paul Barrett, AZ NGA CEO states: “Jeff, Linda and the team run and extremely efficient and highly profitable firm. This is a proud and ambitious financial planning company with a great track record of serving its clients and staff very well indeed. We look forward to working with the RIT team to grow our South East Queensland footprint.”
Jeff English said “It’s great to be able to join forces with the AZ NGA team. We are looking forward to the next evolution of our growth strategy in South East Queensland as a result of partnering with this progressive business.”
Pietro Giuliani, Chairman and CEO of Azimut Holding, comments: “We have reached our first target to complete a successful stream of transactions with high quality financial planning companies across different regions. We are working hard to further expand their client base and AuM and these achievements enables us to look into 2016 with optimism and continue to attract entrepreneurs into our partnership model. Australia is becoming on the most relevant foreign operations within our Group and we remain committed to invest and expand our footprint”.
AZ NGA announced its first acquisition on May 8th, 2015, when it acquired EWM. This was followed by the acquisition of the Pride Group on May 27th 2015, LFPS on July 15th 2015, FLP on Sept 24th 2015, Wise Planners on Oct 19th 2015, Harvest Wealth on Nov 25, and now RI Toowoomba. This latest deal is in line with AZ NGA long term business plan to continue to acquire high calibre businesses. AZ NGA has shortlisted a number of financial planning firms for further potential consolidation.
