IWP UK has not been discouraged by the global pandemic, as it continues to seek firms to consolidate, and currently has an acquisition pipeline of 20 potential deals, nine of which are currently in progress., it told FT Adviser this week.
When IWP (who are a lead partner on Gunner & Co.’s workshop series) entered the market last year, it set targets to reach £2bn in client assets by the first quarter of 2020, and total £5bn assets by the end of the year. The former target was reached through seven purchases of advice firms across the UK in 2019 and early 2020, while the latter target seems to be within reach if IWP continues its acquisition spree.
CEO David Inglesfield commented: “We are very much pushing ahead [with acquisitions], we had a good catch up with our investors recently and they were extremely supportive and we are getting a lot of interest, so we are as busy as ever to be honest.
“Our investors are very bought into the strategy and the strategy is obviously bigger than the current market downturn, although that said the market downturn is obviously not helpful for all sorts of reasons.
“One of the obvious challenges is it makes valuation hard because businesses are suffering a significant fall off in revenue.”
Gunner & Co. have introduced a number of businesses to IWP. If you would like to understand more about their innovative acquisition proposition contact joshua.lee@gunnerandco.com