‘Sorry if we aren’t going fast enough’: Fiducian’s Singh on acquisition pipeline

Fiducian chairman Indy Singh has shared whether the licensee will do further acquisitions to spend its high cash balance, but says the firm won’t throw money away on a large deal. 

In a results webinar for the six months to 30 June, the licensee said it currently has $34.9 million in cash, up from $26.6 million at the end of 2024, after receiving net cash inflows of $8.3 million during the period.

Asked how this could be put to work, Singh speculated on further acquisitions that could be made and said a small firm is preferable as it is easier to integrate, but it may consider a larger one if the cost could be justified.

In June 2025, it acquired a client base in Melbourne which it said could be for an acquisition value of $2.4 million, with the client paid for only when they accept a Fiducian adviser and its advice model. It has also entered into an agreement to acquire a client book in regional Victoria for $960,000.

He said: “Small acquisitions are preferable to me such as when a vendor is either exiting or they want to work with us for a few years, that is easier to absorb and digest and bring them across, whereas a large acquisition takes two years to break even. 

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“If there’s a big one that will be EPS accretive and the advisers can be assimilated into our process and not want to do their own thing by themselves, which would make it risky for us, then in that case we will take a bigger one. We have cash and are ready to do that, but we are not going to throw shareholder money away for the sake of acquiring someone. 

“Some of the other larger acquisitions we have heard about, billions of dollars have been spent but the share price have halved or gone even longer. If we are going to make an acquisition, then we have to be very confident that it will EPS accretive for our business and for our shareholder, else we are spending the money with little to gain.”

Shares in Fiducian are up by 44 per cent since the start of the year and by 104 per cent over the past five years.

As for whether the money would instead be distributed as a special dividend, Singh indicated he was keen to maintain the money on its books for M&A activity. For the half year, it paid a fully franked final dividend of 24.7¢ per share which brought the 2025 financial year dividend to 46.6¢ per share.

Singh said: “We are always on the lookout for acquisitions. I’m sorry if people feel we aren’t going fast enough, but I’m not going to waste shareholders’ money. We will spend that money very carefully.

“Once you give the money away, then you don’t have it. When you need money for a big acquisition then you find it’s been distributed. We are going to keep spending the money, but as the profit and the company grows, if the company feels we should give a larger distribution, then we will.”

In its financial results, Fiducian said net inflows were $343 million from its salaried and franchised advisers, and almost 100 per cent of this is invested through the Fiducian platform and its multimanager funds. 

It delivered a net profit after tax of $18.6 million, which was up 23 per cent from the prior corresponding period. Funds under management, advice and administration were $14.8 billion, up from $13.5 billion a year ago, while net revenue was up from $60.5 million to $68 million.

The licensee currently has 77 advisers across 46 offices and targets inflows of $6 million for each adviser. 

Funds under administration for IFAs is around 11 per cent of total funds under administration. Fiducian said efforts are underway to build new relationships and increase net inflows from non-aligned financial adviser groups. 

“As IFAs gain confidence in our administration capability and place larger volumes of funds with us, we believe Auxilium could become an important revenue earner for us.”