Chesnara has revealed that it has £100m in funds for the purpose of acquisitive growth.
The consolidator has tripled its cash balances from £46m at the end of 2021, to £155m in the first half of 2022. These cash balances will be funding Chesnara’s M&A strategy.
Back in April, Chesnara purchased Sanlam Life and Pensions for £39m.
Steve Murray, the group chief executive, commented on the “real momentum” behind Sanlam’s growth:
“We remain optimistic about our ability to participate in future M&A and continue to be highly confident in our ability to finance and execute such transactions on attractive terms for both vendors and our shareholders.”
Despite Chesnara’s growth in other areas, profit has taken a hit, with a loss of nearly £105m this year, as opposed to a profit of £21m in 2021. Nevertheless, shareholder dividends continued to grow.
Luke Savage, group chairperson, said:
“We continue to expect the market to be active and we have taken actions to enhance our ability to participate in that market, including the issuance of our inaugural Tier 2 bond in February.”
Chesnara’s rapid growth sees it looking after upwards of £11bn assets, across over 940,000 clients. Meanwhile, the recent acquisition of Dutch company Conservatrix will see Chesnara with over a million clients by completion.
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Louise Jeffreys is managing director of Gunner & Co, an IFA broker with values based on strong relationships built on trust, credibility and value.
Gunner & Co. specialise in IFA sales, IFA business sales, retiring IFAs and IFA client bank sales.