Countplus’ net profit after tax has grown to $5.95 million for the 2020 financial year, compared to $3.68 million for the same period a year before, thanks to the firm’s operational focus and a discipline approach.
At its first ever virtual annual general meeting (AGM), the firm also announced improvements to its key financial metrics which included a gross cash at hand of $27 million combined with a debt facility of $25 million earmarked for strategic investment in core-related opportunities which included tuck-in acquisitions as well as other owner, driver-partner growth opportunities.
The firm also reported a progress across a range of key metrics due to efficiencies in the advice delivery process and a concurrent 39% uplift in revenue per adviser.
CountFinancial’s chief executive and managing director, Matthew Rowe, said that a renewed value proposition to financial advisers under a ‘clean’ client-focused licensee model had attracted record numbers of inquiries from financial advisers looking to join the network.
“At the time of this presentation we have had formal inquiries from 240 financial advisers seeking to join Count Financial. We remain vigilant with our growth plans and only three out of five financial advisers who get to due diligence stage are meeting required standards to be invited to join,” he said.
In September, the firm announced that its member firm AdviceCo completed a tuck-in acquisition of the accounting revenues of Arch Capital under the CountPlus ‘owner-driver, partner’ model.
Following this, in October, Brisbane-based Cooper Reeves also completed a tuck-in acquisition of CBD Wealth, which were both firms of CountPlus, while another CountPlus’ firm, Mogg Osborne, announced the completion of a tuck-in acquisition of Freedom Accounting Group.
On top of that, earlier this month, a key Godfrey Pembroke firm, Ascent Private Wealth, decided to move to CountPlus.
According to the Money Management’s 2020 TOP Financial Planning Groups ranking, as of July, the firm had 268 authorised representatives who were financial planners.
“We have in place the pre-requisites for prudent and selective expansion and look forward to updating the market on activities as they unfold,” Rowe added.
