Tavistock Investments has revealed that it aims to increase its assets five-fold over the next five years. Tavistock’s purchase of Chater Allan Financial Services has kickstarted its new acquisition drive. Meanwhile, an additional pipeline of acquisitions seems to be on the horizon: discussions between Tavistock and two potential vendors already underway.
This follows Tavistock’s announcement that it sold its discretionary fund management arm to Titan Wealth Holdings. Tavistock also signed a 10-year strategic partnership with Titan.
Brian Raven, chief executive of Tavistock, confirmed that he is on the lookout for high-quality medium to large acquisitions.
Mr Raven said:
“We didn’t have the credibility to talk to large businesses about acquisitions until yesterday’s announcement.
“I would say we’ll be focusing on medium to large acquisitions, good quality businesses. But essentially, we’re looking to buy advisory businesses – whether or not they have an asset management capability, as we do within the group.
“There are companies that I’ve done my homework on that I will be approaching. There are a couple of companies that we’re in discussions with already and there will be other businesses that will now get introduced to me because of what we’ve announced yesterday.
“All of that I expect will mean two or three acquisitions over the next 18 months.”
Mr Raven also elaborated on the firm’s medium-term goals:
“In terms of assets, at the moment we have about £4bn under advice,” he said. “Over the next three to five years I’d like to get that to £20bn. It would be nice to get that to £10bn within three years and I think that’s doable.”
He added: “We are actively engaged in discussions with at least two. I would expect at least one of those, if not more, to follow through to an acquisition, but given the time it takes, it would be quite swift if it happened in August or September.”
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