Planning practice sales up
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The consulting firm Radar Results has announced that it has seen an increase in the number of sellers of financial practices coming to market in 2010, proving buyer advocates are becoming more popular.
Managing director of Radar Results John Birt said his firm had increased its transactions dramatically, from 35 sales in 2008 to over 50 in 2009.
“More recently, we’re now up to just over 70 practices, including larger businesses,” said Birt.
Birt attributes the trend to more people turning to advocate services, citing cost effectiveness and ease of transaction as reasons.
“We were unheard of five years ago. Then, you went to your dealer group and asked them to buy you, or you might have used a broker ... I think the sellers know that it’s [now] an easy process,” said Birt.
Chris Wrightson, director of Centurion Market Makers, agrees that there has definitely been an increase in sellers, but he attributes this to a lag in the market from the global financial crisis (GFC).
“There’s an increase in interest from people who held off selling during the GFC, which they did partly because of the financial impact, and partly because of a lack of buyers,” said Wrightson.
While Centurion said it has not seen a huge increase in transactions, it has doubled the amount of inquiries in the last year.
“We’re also far more likely to complete a sale than we were in 2008,” Wrightson added.
Kenyon Prendeville director Alan Kenyon said he agreed with Wrightson. Kenyon added that he was not inclined to say his firm had experienced a marked increase in sales.
“[Since] the start of 2010 … at any one stage, we’ve always [had] 10 to 15 businesses at play. That’s probably slightly up, but not enough for us to determine a trend,” said Kenyon.
“We’re not seeing any great mass exodus of businesses coming to market wanting to sell. The only trend we’re seeing is that some advisers’ answer to the fees versus commissions debate is that they’re selling their C&D client parcels,” he added.
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