Countplus’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Kidmans PEC, has completed the acquisition of Pacific East Coast (PEC Group), a property and accounting group.
The $3.29-million initial purchase consideration was paid in cash, Countplus said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday.
Subsequent performance-based payments to the sellers will involve cash and equity payments.
The purchase was expected to be earnings per share accretive in current and future years, Countplus said.
PEC Group is an independent property broker and has placed more than $3.5 billion of property through its National Alliance Member Network of over 600 members.
“Accounting is our core business and their core clients, so [Pacific East Coast] is a good supplement to the core business of our group,” Countplus chief executive Michael Spurr told InvestorDaily.
Meanwhile, fellow Countplus subsidiary Beames & Associates has also completed its acquisition of a New South Wales regional accounting practice for $670,000.
Consideration is a combination of cash and equity payable over two years.
Further smaller acquisitions were also being assessed, Spurr said.
Countplus planned to continue looking for potential acquisitions to assist the company’s expansion plans, he said.
“We expect to continue to do acquisitions on a regular basis in a controlled way and that could range from very small acquisitions of parcels … or to much larger businesses,” he said.
“That could be an accounting business or a business that complements the core of our accounting services as a group.
“We are just looking for quality. We’re not trying to get a presence in every region or town. We’ve got a pretty good geographical spread.”
Earlier this month, Countplus reported an operating profit of $10.51 million for the half year ending 31 December 2011.
The figure represented an 11.4 per cent increase over the previous corresponding period in which the company reported operating profit of $9.43 million.
Despite difficult market conditions, net income from Countplus’s member firms was up 8 per cent to $10.62 million from $9.83 million in the previous corresponding period.
The company’s accounting revenue increased by 5.4 per cent, with its financial services/planning revenue up 42 per cent due to the company’s 2010 acquisition of dealer group Total Financial Solutions.
In August last year, Commonwealth Bank of Australia made its $373 million takeover offer for Countplus’s parent company, Count Financial.
