Wren Sterling has completed its acquisitions of Sentinel Private Clients, Bookeeping Administration Services, and Rothesay Intelligent Financial Services.

The acquisitions bring around £294m in assets under advice and 550 new clients and take the total number of acquisitions so far this year for the acquisitive IFA firm to four.

Sentinel Private Clients (Sentinel) is a Warwickshire-based Financial Planning firm. The firm was founded in 2006. Wren Sterling completed the acquisition of Sentinel in March.

Andrew MacDonald of Sentinel said he chose Wren Sterling because the company is large enough to absorb the Sentinel client base, with substantial client assets under advice. He added: “They also have experience of acquisitions with excellent client retention rates. I found that very reassuring, after all, Sentinels’ client relationships have taken years to develop, and I want to ensure that those clients will be looked after and receive the very best advice going forward.”

Bookeeping Administration Services (BKASL) is a Cardiff-based firm.

Ray Jackson, director of BKASL, said continuity for his clients combined with a client-centric culture is what attracted him to Wren Sterling in order to grow his business. He said: “Growing my business is important to me, so the additional support and logistics that Wren Sterling provides will enable me to do that, without the other constraints that come with running a business.”

Rothesay Intelligent Financial Services (Rothesay) is a Bedfordshire-based advice firm with a specialism in retirement funding. The firm was founded in 1990. Wren Sterling completed the acquisition of Rothesay last month.

Rod Hamilton of Rothesay has been happy with the way the acquisition has been handled. He said: “Everything they promised, has been delivered; absolute minimum client disruption, clients investment remaining untouched, a robust framework for future advice and the benefit of great technology.”

The acquisitions came on the back of an acquisition facility secured from Dunport Capital Management in 2020, which the firm said will enable Wren Sterling to make further acquisitions throughout the year.

Andrew MacDonald, Louise Wheeler and Francesca Shaughnessy of Sentinel have joined Wren Sterling to help with the transition of clients into the business, whilst Ray Jackson of BKASL and Rod Hamilton of Rothesay have joined the business as independent financial advisers.

Ian Halley, Wren Sterling’s CEO, said: “These purchases are exactly the sort of acquisitions we believe have a great fit with the business and we’re delighted to have secured them with support from our acquisition funding partner DunPort Capital Management.

“Each of these businesses are well-established with long standing client relationships, strong compliance cultures and I’m delighted that they have chosen to join Wren Sterling.

“We have a clear acquisition strategy and expect to make further acquisitions in the coming months as we continue to hold discussions with businesses like Sentinel, BKASL and Rothesay to become part of Wren Sterling.”

The price paid for the acquisitions was not disclosed.

Wren Sterling has completed several acquisitions over the past two years, most recently in February it announced the purchase of White Wells Investments LLP, which added £50m of assets.

Previous acquisitions have included T D Armstrong Financial Planning Limited, a Dunfermline-based independent Financial Planning business, and Frobisher Capital Ltd, an independent advisory firm based in Woking.

The firm’s total assets under advice is now £4.6bn.