Socium Group has acquired a majority stake in Charles Cameron & Associates, a London-based mortgage broker. The consolidator purchased CC&A from Lonsdale Capital Partners, a private equity firm which has owned the brokerage since 2018.
Socium has a five-year plan to build a 300-adviser business – the CC&A acquisition brings its adviser tally to 162.
Last year, Penta Capital granted Socium a £160m war-chest by Penta Capital in order to fund IFA acquisitions via a buy-and-build strategy. The Penta Capital website outlines the aims of this funding:
“Penta Capital have backed Mary-Anne McIntyre, the former CEO of Openwork, the largest financial adviser network in the UK, to carry out a buy and build in the UK independent Financial Advice market. This is a market where the customer is underserved and the plan is to create a national Financial Advice business by deploying £60m in equity out of total funding in excess of £160m to acquire IFA businesses across the UK.
The aim is to create a best in class advice business, providing superior service and value for money for the customer, with significant central support allowing the acquired businesses to focus on customer needs.”
Since securing the funding, Socium has bought True Bearing in Chorley, Premier Financial Management in Marlow, Chancery Financial Planning in London, Shipman Financial Planning in Taunton, Emery (IFA) in Essex, Wealth Solutions in Birmingham, and Johnston Campbell in Belfast.
Chief executive of CC&A, Simon Nimmo, will continue to head up the business. Since 2018, the brokerage firm has grown its revenue from £9m to £13m. CC&A has around 90 mortgage advisers, as well as strong digital advice services.
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