Perspective Financial to raise £28m in AIM listing

WILMSLOW company Perspective Financial Group, is to raise £28m through a listing on the AIM market.

The acquisitive firm, recently ranked as the 8th fastest-growing private business in the UK, will use the proceeds of the listing to pay down corporate bonds and to complete further bolt-on acquisitions.

Perspective was founded in 2008 and provides impartial financial advice to approximately 84,000 private clients and around 500 corporate pension clients. Since its creation, it has made 31 acquisitions and has 23 offices around the country and assets under management of more than £2.5bn.
   
It has 12 businesses in its acquisition pipeline of which terms are agreed for six acquisitions, with three expected to close during August.

Last year Perspective made EBITDA of £3.7m (£2.3m in 2011) on revenues of £20.5m.

Non-executive chairman Chirs Giles said: “We believe that Perspective’s size and scale, allied to the market opportunity presented by the Retail Distribution Review, presents a significant opportunity for financial advisers and investors alike.

“The company provides an invaluable service to its thousands of clients and boasts a hugely respected management team with a wealth of industry experience. This provides Perspective with a fantastic platform from which it can continue to grow and develop as a business.  Now is the right time for the company to IPO and continue its journey with a new base of shareholders.”

Chief executive Damian Keeling added: “We set up Perspective in 2008, specifically to take advantage of the opportunities in the UK financial advisory market, resulting from the recent introduction of the Retail Distribution Review.  

“Since inception, Perspective has continually delivered strong profitable growth driven by our core acquisition and integration strategy and as the group builds on this momentum, an IPO is the logical next step.

“We believe that Perspective offers investors a unique way to capitalise on these changes to the UK financial advisory market whilst the shifting demographics and the need for individuals to take responsibility for their own financial advice also supports our business model and future growth.”

The deal is not a staightforward listing, but will be achieved via the acquisition of Perspective by a special purpose vehicle, Maia Acquisitions.

The enlarged group will be simultanelously admitted to trading on AIM and and Maia will change its name to Perspective Financial Holdings plc.  Shares are expected to begin trading in early August.
 
Maia was established by Chris Giles, investment banker and Perspective non-executive director Mike Fletcher and David Foreman, a colleague at Mr Fletcher’s Praetura Ventures, to acquire or invest in a financial services business and undertake a buy and build strategy to drive growth.

A spokesman for Perspective said the deal was being structured in this way to enable venture capital trusts to  take part in the placing and in a tax efficient manner.

He said it would also enable executives to be rewarded under a £10m earn-out scheme, as Persective follows an “aggressive growth strategy”.

To qualify for the earn-out cash, Perspective will have to grow its pre-execeptional EBITDA to £8.5m in year end December 2014 and £11.8m in December 2015.