Fairstone announces two full acquisitions

Fairstone today announces two full acquisitions and the opening of a new Farnborough hub. The acquisitions extend the Group’s reach across the South, whilst adding over £318m of Funds Under Management and 1250 new clients.

The acquisition of Grayside Financial Services in Epsom and Swindon-based Executive Wealth Management continues the firm’s record twelve months of dealmaking. In that period 18 firms have joined Fairstone’s unique Downstream Buy Out (DBO) programme across the UK and Ireland, with a further 8 full acquisitions also being completed.

The acquisitions follow further investment in the South of the UK. The firm recently opened its sixth nationwide hub in Farnborough, bringing together a number of Fairstone’s South East offices. This is part of an evolving strategy which will see Fairstone open offices in a number of key locations across the UK within the next 12 months. The strategy will see a move towards more operational functions. It will also see the establishment of state-of-the-art working environments for colleagues being located in the regions and improved settings for meeting clients.

Fairstone CEO, Lee Hartley said:

“We already successfully operate five hubs across the UK, including a thriving City office in central London. In close proximity to Farnborough airport, the Aerospace Centre Business park was the perfect location for our next hub with its business gateway to London.”

Grayside Financial Services has over 50 years specialising in holistic investment and post-retirement advice. Executive Wealth is a full-service financial planning firm with a specialist commercial mortgage arm, Prospero Finance. Both firms join Fairstone after a period of integration as part of Fairstone’s unique DBO programme.

Lee added: “We’re delighted to welcome the Grayside and Executive Wealth teams into the Fairstone family. Both are client-focused, quality firms which have established an excellent reputation for providing first-class service over many decades. They’re a great fit for Fairstone.”

Executive Wealth principals James Relph and Martin Smedley, said that the prospect of being part of a larger organisation and the potential to create further growth, were deciding factors in partnering with Fairstone.

James Relph added: “We have grown significantly in the past few years and needed the support and infrastructure of a large national brand to maximise new opportunities and help take the business to the next level.

“Fairstone not only had the expertise to support us with technology, new regulatory requirements, and resource, but they were also the most proven acquirer in the sector with a track record of delivering results, making it the standout proposition.”

Mike Seddon, Principal at Grayside Financial Services continued : “The DBO model really appealed to us as it has allowed us to partner with Fairstone first to integrate our processes and then be supported to grow, while remaining independent and continuing to service our client needs to the highest standard.”

Lee Hartley added: “High quality businesses like Grayside and Executive Wealth, with ambitious growth plans will always be on our radar. The strength of our DBO programme is demonstrated by the fact that in our history of completing over 60 deals, no company has received less than 100% of the target purchase price. In fact, the average final acquisition value across all deals stands at an impressive 113% making Fairstone’s approach so attractive to business principals.”

The DBO programme provides ambitious IFA firms who have no desire to sell now, but who want to build towards a capital event in the future, with the ability to release some capital on day one of the partnership. They can then work towards a guaranteed sale valuation at a future date of their choosing. Fairstone provides capital investment, growth support, resource and centralised resource, as well as access to new clients during the partnership period, ensuring that each business reaches its optimal value at the date of full acquisition.