Centric Wealth is looking to build scale through acquisitions as the company continues to eye a public listing.
Centric Wealth is looking to grow its business this year through acquisitions of risk insurance and financial planning practices.
The wealth management company is targeting insurance specialists in Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra.
Although the group has well-established financial planning practices in these locations it has only one risk specialist in Melbourne, while the Brisbane and Canberra offices do not have specialists on the ground, Centric Wealth executive chairman Philip Kelly said.
"There is a natural level of risk business that comes with financial planning. We could employ several risk people in each location," he said.
The acquisition strategy focuses on risk specialists, but the group is also likely to make financial planning acquisitions this year and is in early-stage discussions with several practices, Kelly said.
The renewed acquisition efforts should help Centric Wealth build scale and prepare it for an initial public offering (IPO), he said.
The group has explored the route of an IPO before, but settled on a private placement of a 75 per cent stake in the company with Champ Private Equity for $80 million in January 2009.
"Centric had plans to list in the past. That is a medium-term ambition now," Kelly said.
Champ supports the listing plans, Kelly said.
"Champ's view is that the company should make itself large enough to make listing a really solid, viable option," Kelly said. "We don't want to list as a micro cap."
Centric Wealth recently attracted former Hillross Financial Services managing director John McMurdo to head up the company after the departure of Michael Pillemer.
McMurdo has been given the task of driving the company's growth plans.
"There is a strong focus on acquisitions in his mandate," Kelly said.
Industry associations have bucked the trend of remaining stoic and standing firm alone for their members, instead choosing to band together to lash out at the current recommendations of the Cooper review.
