Investor Group is set to add a third financial planning business to its Adelaide based Prescott Consultants stable, with an agreement announced yesterday to purchase Sanderson Blair.
Sanderson Blair will join Accumulus, which was acquired by Investor Group last month, and Prescott, formerly Ord Minnett South Australia, which was aquired last September, in the Prescott Consultants Adelaide fold.
The acquisition will take the three groups to a combined $1.2 billion funds under advice and 27 advisers.
The Sanderson Blair financial planning business, established in 1989 by accounting firms Bartons and Moore Stephens Priestley and Morris, has grown to $120 million funds under advice since obtaining its dealers licence in 1991.
Under the deal, which is conditional to a formal sale agreement, the accounting practices will continue to provide client referral support to the financial planning business.
Investor Group will purchase the Sanderson Blair business for $900,000, to be paid by $450,000 in cash and $450,000 in shares, with the shares subject to voluntary sale restrictions.
The transaction is expected to be completed around July 1, 2002, at the same time as the Accumulus acquisition.
According to Investor Group’s announcement on theAustralian Stock Exchange, the company will now turn its focus on building the Prescott Consultant brand across other states.
“The company’s intention is to now pursue specific plans relating to the expansion of Prescott’s Melbourne operations, formerly Spectrum Group, together with the identification of a compatible Sydney CBD firm capable of developing under the Prescott brand,” the announcement says.
