Wealth management group Fairstone has announced two recent acquisitions in Scotland and the south east of England.
The Sunderland-based business has bought Kent-based Bellegrove Mortgage Services and Pethshire-based Next Home. The deals mean 22 staff and 6,000 clients join Fairstone, which is made up of 1,200 staff and regulated advisers with £15bn in funders under management for more than 55,000 clients.
Both firms will add to Fairstone's mortgage business - which equates to around 8% of its total fee income and conducts £2.4bn of lending each year. And following the acquisitions, which come via Fairstone's downstream buyout model, Bellegrove and Next Home are said to be looking to grow.
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Lee Hartley, CEO of Fairstone, said: "I am delighted to welcome Next Home and Bellegrove to the Fairstone family. Both are client-focused, quality firms who have established an excellent reputation for providing first-class service over many years. They are also very ambitious and are looking to grow and we are delighted to be able to support them on the next stage of their journeys.
"While we are primarily a wealth management house, the mortgage sector is valuable to us as there is a synergy between the two; every mortgage adviser in the group work with IFAs who can provide wealth advice to their clients and vice versa, providing a complete wealth offering across the business. Our mortgage channel gives us a position of real scale in the market, and we are continuing to invest in this area of the business, leveraging our proprietary technology system and relationships with some of the leading UK lenders, to provide further efficiencies for our clients and advisers in terms of turnaround times and ease of processes.”
Next Home principal John Greener said: "Since we started in 2004, we have strived and succeeded in making Next Home the number one choice for consumers in Perthshire. We are delighted to be joining Fairstone to further enhance our opportunities for growth and security. Meanwhile Bellegrove Mortgage Services principals Simon Heron, Jenny Saunders and Perry Barnes said that Fairstone’s financial strength and innovative approach would enable the business to fulfil their future expansion plans to grow the business.’’
Simon Heron, director of Bellegrove, added: “Being part of a market leading and forward-thinking business such as Fairstone will give our clients the best access to advice and support throughout their lifetime while enabling us to really grow the business for the future."
