Dealer groups looking for a quiet exit

Recent industry upheaval has resulted in plenty of small and medium sized dealer groups looking for a quiet exit through a sale to an institution, according to Equity Trustees head of wealth management Philip Galagher.

EQT has been approached more than once a week by groups who are looking for an institutional owner, he said.

“A lot of them can see that there are advantages in the vertical integration that an institutionally-owned dealer group can put in place,” he said.

They may not necessarily want to get involved with a bank but are looking for an institution such as EQT that does have some involvement in the advisory side and has some other interests that could be beneficial in terms of cross selling and so on, he said.

EQT has been open about the fact that if the right deal comes along they would be interested, and that would most likely be a group that fits in with EQT’s focus on the high net worth client space, Galagher said.

The group would also be likely to look only at “squeaky clean” groups that had already been operating a fee for service model for some time.

EQT was targeting growth in the next three to five years, both through establishing its own brand and through an agency structure but most of that growth would likely come through acquisitions, he said.

According to Galagher, the synergies from a trustee company’s point of view are not just from the advisory side, but the fact that frequently HNW clients will want estate planning and to review their wills, which is an area EQT already focuses on.