Financial services group Tasmanian Perpetual Trustees is on the acquisition trail after buying a second financial planning firm.
The listed group announced yesterday that it acquired the Launceston-based Norman and Kathryn Collings Financial Services, which has $55 million in funds under advice.
It will be merged into the company’s Launceston financial planning operations.
Fellow Tasmanian adviser Ellen Burn of Ellen Burn Financial Services joined Tasmanian Perpetual in July.
Both advisers were previously authorised representatives with Axa subsidiary Charter Financial Planning.
The practices were acquired for undisclosed sums.
“[Principal] Norm Collings will be remaining with the business and will continue to manage the strong personal and trusting relationships that he has so successfully established over many years,” Tasmanian Perpetual managing director Mark Scanlon said.
He said Collings has been the leading Axa financial planner in Tasmania for more than 15 years and has been one of Axa’s top 12 planners in Australia for 10 years.
The firm announced to shareholders that it has recently doubled the number of planners employed in the business and plans to acquire more practices.
Two new branches were opened last financial year in the expanding areas of Kingston in the south and Kings Meadows in the north.
The firm has $1.3 billion in funds under management and runs a banking service in conjunction with Bendigo Bank.
Its net profit rose 3.1 per cent to $7.76 million during the last financial year.
