Tavistock Investments has acquired Cambridge-based IFA Chater Allan Financial Services and announced a 50% increase in profits for the year ending 31 March.

The group’s unaudited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2021 show an EBITDA of £2.77m, an increase of 50% over the £1.85m EBITDA reported for the previous year.

The acquisition of Chater Allan Financial Services adds approximately £110m to the group’s funds under advice.

The firm added that is planning to make further acquisitions this year.

The announcement comes the day after Tavistock Investments announced it was entering into a 10-year ‘strategic partnership’ with Titan Wealth Holdings. As part of the deal Titan will acquire Tavistock Wealth Limited, Tavistock’s multi-asset manager, which has £1bn in funds under management. 

Titan Wealth is a new investment firm co-founded recently by Andrew Fearon, a key figure at rapidly growing Financial Planning group Independent Wealth Planners (IWP).

Mr Fearon is a founder shareholder and director of IWP where he is responsible for M&A.

Earlier this year Tavistock rejected an ‘unwelcome’ takeover bid from Jersey-based investment firm called TEAM, which was believed to have some backing from ex-employees.

In its unaudited financial results, the group increased gross margins by 3% (12.1m compared to £11.8m in the previous year) and reduced overheads by 5.7% (year ended 31 March 2021: approximately £9.3 million, prior year: £9.9 million).

The firm’s revenues for the year were in line with the last financial year (31 March 2021: £28.7m, prior year: £28.8 million) and funds under management also remained similar at £1.1bn.

Pre-tax profit for the year was £1.1m, after making a one-off provision of £1.2m to cover the costs of a group-wide reorganisation. For the year ended 31 March 2020 the group reported a pre-tax loss of £5.7m.

Brian Raven, chief executive at Tavistock, said: “It has been a tremendous team effort to achieve all that we have over the last year and I thank every member of staff for their loyalty and support. Yesterday we announced the launch of our long-term strategic partnership with Titan Wealth and our commitment to accelerate the growth of our advice business, so I am particularly pleased to welcome on board everyone from Chater Allan. The firm has an excellent track record, and we are delighted that they have decided to become part of Tavistock. We remain acquisitive and look forward to updating shareholders on progress in due course.”

The firm expects to release its audited results by mid-August.