Kingswood buys Scottish advice company for £5.1m

It is the firm’s first acquisition in the country

Glasgow, Clyde
2 minutes

International wealth management group Kingswood has acquired Glasgow-based Strategic Asset Managers (SAM).

SAM works with families, businesses and professional partners across the central Scotland and Perthshire areas.

The firm has three advisers and a total of eight employees, managing over 400 clients with more then £200m ($236m, €229m) of assets under advice.

The business will be acquired for total cash consideration of up to £5.1m, payable over a two-year period.

Some £3.1m will be paid on completion and the balance paid on a deferred basis, which is subject to the achievement of pre-agreed performance targets.

Kingswood said it will obtain the funds for the deal through the “utilisation of its new funding facility”, announced in October 2022.

It is the firm’s first acquisition in Scotland. The deal comes a couple of weeks after Kingswood acquired JCH Investment Management and Employee Benefit Solutions for a combined total of around £8.6m

Pipeline

David Lawrence, Kingswood Group chief executive, said: “I’m pleased to announce another step forward in the growth of Kingswood as we expand our footprint into Scotland. When we are considering acquisitions, we do so with the upmost care, to ensure cultural and client focused alignment.

“SAM are focused on helping clients across the central belt of Scotland and Perthshire achieve a confident financial future. The opportunity to build our relationships across Scotland is an exciting one as we strive to help more people achieve their goals.

“Kingswood’s build and buy strategy continues, with a further four purchase transactions under exclusive due diligence, that we expect to close in the coming months, plus additional transactions that are currently under negotiation.”

Derek Stewart, chief executive of SAM, added: “SAM was formed in 2001 and put the client at the centre of our proposition through our highly qualified and dedicated team of professionals. We operate in a very similar way and believe this will benefit our clients and present greater development opportunities for our staff. We’re proud to be the first Scottish firm to become part of the Kingswood Group.”

This story originally appeared on our sister publication, International Adviser.

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