Count enacts Sydney M&A deal
Count has enacted its latest M&A deal of the financial year, acquiring the accounting and audit client base of a Sydney accounting firm.
Subsidiary CountPlus One has entered into a binding agreement to acquire the accounting and audit client base of Brigden & Partners, with the deal expected to complete in October 2025.
The accounting firm has offices in Hornsby and Sydney’s central business district, and $1.7 million in revenue.
Count chief executive Hugh Humphrey said: “This acquisition exemplifies our strategy of partnering with high-quality firms and driving sustainable growth. We continue to see significant growth opportunities in NSW and this acquisition expands Count North Sydney’s scale and capabilities.”
In May, Count Gold Coast acquired the accounting clients of MJG Partnership and Harrison & Harrison. The two practices are both located in Queensland and offer accounting, taxation, bookkeeping, and lending services. The transactions were understood to bring in additional recurring revenues of $2.8 million, driving Count Gold Coast to achieve an annualised revenue of approximately $18 million following completion.
Meanwhile, South Australian accounting firm Johnston Grocke entered into a binding transaction to merge into Count Adelaide in April. Johnston Grocke was founded in 1990 with a life insurance background and later expanded into financial planning and accounting in 1995, generating $3.8 million in new revenue, with approximately 60 per cent of this driven by financial advice.
Speaking to Money Management in August at Count’s financial results, Humphrey said the firm was keen to do “transformative” M&A deals now that it had completed the integration of Diverger which it acquired in March 2024.
Humphrey said the firm was very active with M&A activity, completing one every five weeks during the year, and it noted the acquisition size and strategic value of the deals it is enacting is “trending upward” with the average annual equity partner firm revenue sitting at $8 million.
“We are very interested in doing more transformations and have the capacity and track record to do so very well and have built some compelling capabilities in the past. We are interested in the right sort of opportunity and right quality of business.
“We took on some debt with the acquisition of Diverger but left ample headroom for day-to-day M&A activity. Any big transformation would be complemented by a capital raising as well.”
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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