After purchasing nine advice firms in 2018, Harwood Wealth Management is looking to continue its external growth in 2019, with £4.2m in funds to be allocated for acquisitions. Director of Harwood, Peter Mann, spoke about the the firm’s intentions for 2019:
“The group’s growth in revenue was driven by the completion of nine acquisitions over the period, as well as the impact of prior year acquisitions.
“Acquisitions are a key part of our strategy. We remain very confident that a large pool of opportunities exists, many of which we expect to execute in 2019, continuing to grow the business in scale and capability.”
Mr Mann also commented on Harwood’s particular strategy for the firm’s acquisitions:
“We are not vertically integrated, a lot of the consolidators in the advice market are buying firms in order for those firms to distribute the investment products of the buying firm. We are not doing that, we do have investment products they can use if they want to, but they don’t have to.”
He added that Harwood seeks advisers who “want to express themselves as financial advisers, people who want to retain the freedom they had [before acquisition].”
It appears that the acquisition strategy has been effective for Harwood Wealth, with the firm reporting a profit of £2m and a cash balance of over £13.5m in 2018.
