LSL Property Services acquires Personal Touch assets

The London-listed firm described PTFS as a financial services business, specialising in the provision of mortgage and other financial services products via its network of intermediaries.

It said the consideration for the acquisition was £4.8m, plus an acquired intercompany debt of £0.6m, and was made up of a payment of £2.8m which was due on completion and a further payment of £2.0m which was deferred for 12 months.

The acquisition was being funded from LSL's existing banking facilities.

PTFS is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as a principal firm, with 200 appointed representative firms and 474 advisers.

In 2017, the PTFS network of advisers arranged £5.1bn of mortgages.

PTAS owns and operates the ‘Toolbox’ software system, which is the operating system used by all PTFS appointed representatives.

The LSL board said the acquisition would provide it with additional scale and market share in financial services, complementing its existing businesses and further strengthening its position as a distributor of mortgage and non-investment insurance products.

It added that the acquisition would further strengthen the resilience and diversification of LSL's business model, as the group benefited from the provision of increased mortgage and non-investment insurance volumes by intermediaries outside its core estate agency businesses.

PTFS and PTAS reported aggregate losses before tax of £0.1m for the year ended 31 December 2016, at which date they had aggregate gross assets of £20.3m.

“This acquisition supports LSL's stated strategy of enhancing its position as a leading mortgage distributor and growing long-term profitability in the provision of residential property services in the UK by identifying value enhancing opportunities,” said LSL chief executive Ian Crabb.

“LSL has deep sector expertise in the provision of financial services and PTFS is an excellent fit with our existing financial services businesses.”