Investor Group to take on Melbourne

By Ross Kelly

IN an attempt to replicate the scale of its Sydney business in its home-town of Melbourne, listed financial planning and accountancy firm Investor Group has agreed to buy prominent Melbourne-based accountancy firm Schoenfelds.

Based in Melbourne’s St Kilda Road precinct, Schoenfelds provides traditional accountancy services to mid-tier clients and also has a small financial planning division, which Investor Group hopes to grow through the acquisition.

“What we’ve got there is an excellent client base that we can actually provide more services to in financial planning,” Investor Group managing director Kevin White said.

Schoenfelds will be merged with Investor Group member firm WHK Carricks. The merged firm will be called WHK Greenwoods to align with Investor Group’s Sydney office of the same name.

“We have built a quite a large firm in Sydney in the form of WHK Greenwoods, now offering a total accounting, tax, audit, financial planning, wealth management and superannuation business. It’s a significant business employing over 200 people. We think there’s an opportunity to replicate that sort of business in Melbourne,” White said.

Schoenfelds founding partner Michael Schoenfeld will be managing principal of WHK Greenwoods’ Melbourne outfit.

Established by Schoenfeld in 1978, his firm has five partners, around 60 staff and an annual revenue of approximately $7 million.

Conditional upon completion of a formal sales agreement, the acquisition is expected to come into effect on July 1, 2005.

Investor Group is Australia’s fifth largest accountancy business. Its distribution network consists of 19 accountancy firms and two specialist financial planning practices spread across Australia and New Zealand.