Investor Group changes name

Large listed accountancy and financial planning firm Investor Group has changed its name to the WHK Group.

Shareholders at the Melbourne-based group’s annual general meeting last week overwhelmingly approved the change of the company’s name.

WHK Group managing director Kevin White said the change in name would align the group’s brand with its member firms and “clear up confusion at the client and staff level”.

“Over the last couple of years the vast majority of our member firms have changed to WHK. The original firm with this name was a large group in Sydney called Williams, Hatchman and Kean, which we acquired three years ago. Then they merged with Greenwoods in Sydney to become WHK Greenwoods. Then a number of our other firms changed their names by adding the WHK prefix,” he explained.

WHK is still working with the Australian Stock Exchange to get its listing code changed.

Meanwhile, White said WHK was keen to continue its aggressive acquisitions strategy along the eastern seaboard.

“So far this year we have acquired revenue of $12 million from a target of about $20 million.”

So far this year, Investor Group has bought two Victorian accountancy firms, Sydney accountancy and planning group Schoenfelds, four practices from Bentley’s MRI, Broken Hill-based firm Conolan McInnes, and accountancy and planning firm Hayes Knight Melbourne.

For the financial year ending June 30, 2005, WHK posted an EBITA (operating profit) of $27.85 million, up 37 per cent on the previous year.

WHK is Australia’s fifth largest accountancy business and at June this year was Australia’s 36th largest financial planning dealer group.