WLM Financial Services has plans to boost its growth, with the dealer group entering into advanced merger discussions with two Sydney-based accounting firms.
WLM has been in talks with the practices since late last year and expects to sign a deal with both firms within the next month or so, with implementation likely in the new financial year.
“We’re in advanced due diligence discussions with both of them. We’ve had a preliminary look at the financials and they all seem fine and we’re now drilling down to the detail,” WLM director Matthew Walker told InvestorDaily.
“So we will be looking this month to structure a proposal for each of them and we’ll see how we go.”
The accountancy firms had between one to three partners and up to 20-30 staff. If the mergers were successful, Walker said it would also boost client growth with the establishment of an in-house referral system for the firm’s financial planners.
While WLM is currently only NSW-based, Walker said the group had no imminent plans to expand into other states.
“We’re looking to grow organically in our home market, we think there is plenty of opportunity at the level that we operate,” he said.
“But once we’re set with these mergers we may look at either setting up affiliations or associations with interstate businesses or expand organically, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one.”
WLM was also looking at other opportunities to grow fairly significantly in 2010, according to Walker.
“We’ve got a fairly strong self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) business so we’d actively consider some sort of an arrangement with an SMSF administration business,” he said.
“We’d also look at possibly teeing up with a good finance broker, a real estate consultant or a firm of lawyers to build on that one-stop-shop concept.”
