Investor Group gains Tasmanian firm

Accounting and financial planning consolidator Investor Group has picked up another regional accountancy practice, this time entering an agreement to acquire a Tasmanian group.

Based in Hobart, accountancy firm Moore Robsons has a financial planning division with about $15 million funds under management, according to Investor Group’s announcement on theAustralian Stock Exchange.

The acquisition of Moore Robsons in Hobart means Investor Groups now has a presence in three areas of Tasmania. Its Garrotts/Paterson financial services business is based in Launceston and the Pinnacle/Wiseman & Templeton financial planning business is located in Devonport and Burnie, on Tasmania’s North West Coast.

Investor Group managing director Kevin White says the strategy of making individual acquisitions is part of the group’s focus on developing large regional groups.

“What we are focused on is buliding a limited number of financial services entities. So we have 14 regional independent firms, one in New Zealand and now the three stand alone financial planning businesses,” White says.

“What this also means for the three businesses in Tasmania is they will form a regional structure group that can be looked at like one firm.”

The purchase of Moore Robsons will involve the issue of about 330,000 Investor Group shares, and is expected to be completed by November, 2001 subject to due diligence and legal documentation.

The latest regional acquisition comes less than a month after Investor Group entered a deal to acquire the financial planning and insurance business, Ord Minnett South Australia, a business with more than $800 million funds under management. This agreement is expected to be finalised later today, White says, and will take Investor Group’s funds under management to about $2.8 billion.

“New business written since June means funds under management is starting to approach $3 billion,” White says.

White says Investor Group will continue to look for other acquisitions to be made by regional firms for added growth, but says Investor Group is not looking at anything similar to the attempted merge with city based accountancy firm PKF, a move that was abandoned in June this year.

“We are not looking at anything major in the city, but are taking steps to achieve what we wanted out of that deal in other ways, such as strengthening the corporate team including the HR and IT division,” he says.