Ascot Lloyd expects to complete a further eight acquisitions before the end of the year it has been revealed.

In its annual results, published today, chief executive Nigel Stockton said the advisory firm had agreed terms on eight deals which would add 20 advisers, £15m of revenue and £1.2bn of funds under management before the start of 2020.   

Ascot Lloyd recently acquired two Financial Planning firms, Prest Financial Planning and QS Financial.

Mr Stockton said: “We continue to expand and strengthen our presence in a number of key regions, including the West Midlands through our acquisition of Newell Palmer.

“We are also announcing today two completed acquisitions, most notably the Prest business in Stockport, which adds 6 advisers and over £350m of FUM to our existing £7bn+ of FUM.

“We have agreed terms on a further eight acquisitions which will be complete by the end of 2019.

“In total we expect to add 20 advisers, £15m of revenue and £1.2bn of FUM in 2019 to begin 2020 in a very positive position. 

“The outlook for our business has never been so positive, currently of the approximately £600bn of IFA funds across the UK, nearly two thirds are advised by small, standalone IFAs.

“The challenges facing these smaller firms is well known and we believe that this will continue to drive an acceleration of consolidation as smaller businesses look to find homes that can better support them and their clients.

“This presents a significant opportunity to Ascot Lloyd, enabling us to leverage our proven track record in integrating businesses, our purpose-built platform and, our commitment to giving advisers the support they need to acquire high quality IFAs.”

Elsewhere the results revealed Ascot Lloyd had revenues of £41.4m (2017: £31.5m) and underlying EBITDA of £7.8m (2017: £5.8m)

Mr Stockton added: "“Looking ahead I have great confidence in our ability to capitalise on this excellent environment and market opportunity, while continuing to retain a rigorous focus on our day-to-day purpose of delivering best-in-class advise for clients.”