SFG Australia continued to receive strong interest to join its business despite tough economic markets slowing local merger and acquisition activity of late, the company's M&A executive said yesterday.
"We've got a mix in our pipeline at the moment - there are some who are looking to act quickly and there are others who have got a more medium-term horizon [to sell]," SFG Australia head of product, services and business acquisitions John Cowan told InvestorDaily.
"Sometimes when you talk to those with a medium-term horizon, they get excited about what their business may look like in a different world and they may speed up the process."
Cowan, who joined the group in May to source and execute the group's "bolt-on and tuck-in acquisitions", said he did not believe M&A activity had dropped off.
"I think what you see is that because of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA), a lot of people are still trying to figure out what that means for their own business, so there's a level of people being a little bit more introspective," he said.
"But there are still a lot of people out there having a look and making decisions to sell and become part of a larger group, having assessed what that means."
Interested parties in discussion with SFG were highly committed to remaining in the independent space, he said.
"Clearly not being aligned with any of the larger players is core to a lot of people talking to us, so that's what we tend to find," he said.
FOFA continued to take a large amount of time and effort from the group as it pushed to "get things up to speed", he said.
He is also assessing future platform functionality after the group renewed its contract for Colonial First State Custom Solutions over the Asgard platform around the time Snowball Group and Shadforth Financial merged.
While platforms had met adviser requirements, the industry might soon see clients' requirements at the forefront of new enhancements, he said.
