Kingswood acquires Aim Independent for up to £3.6m

Wealth and investment management company Kingswood has agreed to acquire Eastleigh-based independent financial advice business Aim Independent in a deal worth up to £3.6m, payable over a two-year period.

Kingswood said on Wednesday that the transaction boosted its UK client-facing advisory team to 94 people and increased UK funds under advice/management to a new milestone of over £7.2bn from roughly 19,300 active clients.

Following regulatory approval, Aim will be acquired for total cash consideration of up to £3.6m, with £1.8m paid at closing and the balance paid on a deferred basis.

Aim provides financial advice to over 750 clients and, in the year ending 31 July 2021, generated £1.2m in revenues and a pre-tax profit of £479,000.

Chief executive David Lawrence said: "My ambition for Kingswood is to become a leading wealth management advisory and Investment management business, breaking the £7.0bn AUA/M mark is a huge signal to that as we continue to grow our geographical footprint across the UK. Our acquisition of Aim will further expand that reach into a new county in the South.

"This is our fourth acquisition of 2022 and we continue to have a strong pipeline of high-quality UK opportunities under negotiation, three of which are in exclusive due diligence. Our next near-term target is to build our UK AUA/M to in excess of £10.0bn in the UK and £14.0bn globally and we have the balance sheet to do so."

As of 0900 GMT, Kingswood shares were down 3.85% at 25.0p.