AZ NGA has entered into a strategic partnership with national advice firm MiQ Private Wealth.
The deal will provide a succession solution for MiQ’s retiring partners, a pathway for future leaders to become partners, and capital to fund the group’s expansion plans, it said.
Established in 2015, MiQ has seven offices nationwide in Western Australia, Queensland, and the ACT, which encompass over 50 employees, 15 financial advisers, and eight advice partners.
It commenced the process of seeking a strategic partner last year, as the firm wanted someone who would provide professional and career development opportunities for its employees, something it was unable to provide itself.
David Brown, MiQ chairman, said the firm had received interest from six parties, but opted for AZ NGA for its support capabilities.
“We were looking for a way to enable retiring and retired partners to realise the value of their equity and allow others to buy in. We also wanted to continue growing, particularly through M&A. We could have borrowed more money from the bank and grown alone, but we decided to bring on a strategic partner who could help us scale up and accelerate our journey,” Brown said.
Paul Barrett, AZ NGA Group CEO, said: “Over the past 10 years, MiQ has grown significantly through both organic activity and a disciplined M&A strategy focused on acquiring firms within its AFSL community and known regional opportunities.
“The group services a broad client base ranging from wealth accumulators and retirees to high-net- worth individuals, as well as a specialist Asian business servicing Chinese, Singaporean and Taiwanese clients.”
AZ NGA has stated it has bold growth plans to triple in size over the next three to five years and has received a $240 million investment from US private equity giant Oaktree Capital as well as $345 million in debt funding from global investment firm Barings to achieve this.
In March, two advisory practices in the AZ NGA network opted to merge to form a multidisciplinary practice. The merged Eureka Whittaker Macnaught (EWM) and Foster Raffan iPlan now has 20 financial advisers collectively, servicing 2,500 clients across six locations in NSW and Queensland.
This aligns with AZ NGA’s wider plan to build ‘super firms’, which can multiply in size and expand their footprint across Australia. The CEO projected the increasing emergence of these supersized advice firms, while smaller family-run businesses will eventually fade out.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t buy firms directly. We absolutely will and we’re looking for quality firms to do that with, but we’ll never be able to keep up with the insatiable appetite of our firms as a community when it comes to M&A,” said Barrett.
