Investor Group continues Melbourne expansion

Listed financial planning and accountancy business Investor Group is to acquire planning firm Hayes Knight Melbourne and merge it with WHK Greenwoods Melbourne on January 31 next year.

Its purchase of HKM will cost Investor Group an undisclosed sum in cash and approximately 250,000 Investor Group shares at an issue price of $4.75 each.

Largely an accountancy firm, HKM has 454 staff, including two senior planners, and has more than $50 million in financial planning client funds under management and annual revenues of $5.5 million.

The HKM merger follows the recent merger of WHK Carricks, an Investor Group core member since March 2003, and Schoenfelds to form WHK Greenwoods.

It will bring WHK Greenwoods a totals of 170 staff, with annualised income of about $21 million, creating a “leading mid-market firm with excellent growth prospects”, according to managing director Kevin White.

He said the mergers will “give rise to significant benefits of scale and synergy, including enhanced technical and client servicing capability, together with a reduction of overhead costs”.

WHK Greenwoods would now “enter a period of consolidation for the next year or two”, White said, but would look at any suitable opportunity to develop its financial planning, broking and superannuation divisions.

Last month Investor Group bought Broken Hill financial planning and accounting firm Conolan McInnes for merger with WHK Thomsons, an Investor Group member firm based in Mildura Victoria.