Paul Barrett’s Italian-backed play, AZ Next Generation Advisory has broadened its footprint by moving beyond financial planning and into the accounting space.
The group announced late last week that it had signed a binding sale and purchase agreement to acquire the entire capital of accounting firm Peters & Partners (“P&P”).
Barrett acknowledged that the acquisition represented AZ NGA’s first move into the accounting arena.
Under the transaction, there will be a share swap of 49 per cent of P&P’s equity for AZ
NGA shares and a progressive buy back of these shares over the next 10 years and emulating its practice with respect to financial planning transaction, AZ NGA intends to inject capital into P&P “with a view to building out a national accounting footprint that can enable a broadening of the offering of AZNGA partner firms”.
Explaining the transaction, Barrett said that what started as a convenient relationship between AZ NGA and P&P where P&P was essentially providing a back office and accounting solution to the financial planning practices had quickly become a strategic opportunity.
“We assisted Michael [Michael Peters, P&P chief executive] in his growth ambitions, and he assisted us in ours,” he said.
“It became obvious to us late last year that a great opportunity existed for both firms to broaden our offering to clients.”
“We’ve now developed a long-term strategy to build a national accounting and small-to-medium enterprise (SME) services footprint.”
