Mawson snaps up AAA Shares

As part of a plan to offer advisers an in-house direct investment capability, independent dealer group Mawson Securities has bought Adelaide based stockbroking and investment advisory firm AAA Shares.

The two groups signed a heads of agreement late last week, whereby Mawson will acquire 100 per cent equity in AAA, with the businesses to merge in the coming months.

Mawson Group chairman Peter Johnson said AAA’s six stock investing specialists would continue to operate under the AAA brand.

“We’ve had a relationship with two stock brokers in the past that we’ve referred our advisers to if they want to give advice. But in most cases they just wanted to refer their clients to somebody they knew they could trust. So we decided to bring it in-house and do it all under the one brand,” Johnson said.

Also moving to Mawson will be AAA principal Ken Wybrow, an ex barrister and former NSW Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, and the head of AAA’s stock trading operation, Kathryn Howes.

As part of the deal, Mawson will also acquire AAA Compliance Services, a small business offering services to dealerships who want to outsource their compliance operations.

“We engaged AAA Compliance Service about 12 months ago to do all of our compliance and we were so impressed by the way they operate we eventually thought well it would be smart for us to bring our businesses together,” said Johnson.

AAA Compliance Services wholesale clients will be kept on as part of the deal.

The acquisition comes as Mawson chief executive Les Mace flagged further growth plans for the Adelaide based dealer group.

“2004 was a good year for us, we completed a major internal review of our business and substantially strengthened our team. We have a new strategic direction and aggressive growth targets,” said Mace.