Fiducian reports FUMAA growth amid M&A talks
Fiducian Group has enjoyed double-digit growth in its FUMAA and NPAT for the first half of FY25, as it looks to boost adviser numbers through potential acquisitions.
Announcing its half-year results for the six months to 31 December 2024, the firm’s statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) was up 26 per cent to $8.6 million from $6.8 million at the end of December 2023.
Net inflows for the core Fiducian platform were $186 million in the six-month period from aligned financial advisers.
Fiducian’s funds under management, administration and advice (FUMAA) rose by 11 per cent, from $12.9 billion to $14.4 billion, driven by strong organic and inorganic inflows.
Breaking this figure down, funds under management (FUM) climbed 16 per cent from $4.8 billion to $5.6 billion, and funds under advice (FUA) grew 6 per cent from $4.7 billion to $4.96 billion.
Its platform administration offering encompassing wrap administration for superannuation and investment services, including its Auxilium platform, increased 15 per cent from $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion.
Fiducian currently has 78 financial advisers across 47 offices throughout Australia.
Speaking at its results briefing, Fiducian Group executive chairman Indy Singh said the company is looking at both organic and inorganic growth to boost its adviser numbers, with a target of up to 150 advisers in the future.
“There’s conversations going on with quite a few advisers who are talking with us and might want to join us. We are going to continue to build, we have got a project team that is aiming to get us to at least 100 advisers,” he said.
“We are looking also for acquisitions, and there’s one which seems quite positive. There’s another one in the north. We’re in negotiation with them and they are both looking very positive. That will raise the [adviser] numbers as well, besides simply getting new franchises on.
“We will not get to 1,000 advisers like some people want to do. If we can have up to 100–150 advisers at best and raise the target for them so that we can get at least $1 billion of new inflows a year.”
Fiducian is targeting at least $6 million in new inflows per adviser, which could lead to over $1 billion in total new flows each year if it were to achieve its 150-adviser target.
Meanwhile, the firm’s Auxilium platform, which opened up to external planners for the first time last year, was previously described as a “disrupter to the disrupters” in the platform market.
Elaborating on this in the results briefing, Rahul Guha, executive chairman of Fiducian Services, said: “We are very energetic, focused and enthusiastic about the [Auxilium platform] that we have launched out. We are really hoping to disrupt the disruptors and some of the newcomers that have come into the platform industry. We are really hoping to attract those clients that could benefit from the service we provide.”
Singh added that the platform is particularly looking to target smaller advisers who he believes have been less of a focus for the bigger names in the industry.
He explained: “A lot of the big platforms are not looking after the smaller advisers, people with smaller volumes of money to move, but we are. We are helping these advisers to set up their processes, to improve their statements of advice and improve their processes. We are seeing a fair bit of interest coming through now. The pipeline there is quite positive.”
AUTHOR
Jasmine Siljic
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