Wren Sterling has completed its first acquisition of the year in a deal which adds £50m of assets under management to the national advice firm.
The acquisition of West Yorkshire-based White Wells Investments will see its principal, Michael Dunn, join Wren Sterling as an employed adviser.
It is the first deal of the year for the national adviser, which secured acquisition funding with Dunport Capital Management in 2020 with plans to pursue a pipeline of purchases throughout the coming year.
Ian Halley, chief executive of Wren Sterling, said the business had gone from "strength to strength over the last twelve months" and had continued to grow in a "tough trading environment".
The adviser currently operates from seven offices in the UK with more than £3.8bn in assets under advice.
Mr Halley said: "We will continue to make acquisitions of high-quality businesses in the year to come.
"I’m delighted to welcome Michael to Wren Sterling - he has built an excellent business over many years with a loyal client bank, which makes White Wells exactly the sort of well-run advice business I want to add to Wren Sterling."
In August last year Wren Sterling bought the assets of Woking-based Frobisher Capital Ltd in a deal which saw it gain £68m in assets under management.
An asset purchase sees the buyer acquire just the assets, leaving the seller with the limited company, whereas a share purchase would have seen the buyer take over a company alongside both its assets and liabilities.
The first month of this year saw a plethora of deals complete in the wealth management and advice market, seemingly fulfilling predictions of a "race to completion" in the first quarter of 2021 amid an expected spike of advice firm sales.
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
