Aust Unity’s pluses and minuses from PWM acquisition
Australian Unity has revealed to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that while its acquisition of dealer group Premium Wealth Management (PWM) helped grow its financial advice revenue, it also saw the exit of some firms from PWM.
The Australian Unity half-year results revealed an 18.2 per cent increase in profit after tax to $14.2 million, with the Director's Report on Personal Financial Services Division revealing that financial advice revenue grew by 34 per cent largely due to the PWM acquisition and the growth of existing practices.
However, in doing so it noted that the number of advisers had remained steady at 184 at 31 December, 2015.
"The business recruited several new practices during the period under review while a small number of practices left the now wholly-owned PWM business," it said.
It noted that "the recruit pipeline is strong and adviser numbers are expected to grow in the second half of this financial year".
The Director's Report said that the business was well placed for growth as a result of the acquisition of Flinders Australia Limited and the opportunity it provided to offer traditional trust and estate administration services to its advisers and accountants.
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