Sanlam buys majority stake in Buckles
11th April 2008
Buckles Holdings Limited, (“Buckles”), the Rhyl-based Independent Financial Adviser announces that Sanlam Limited, (“Sanlam”) the leading South African financial services group has acquired a 60 % stake in the firm. The transaction complements Sanlam’s existing portfolio of UK businesses and strengthens the Group’s retail proposition in the United Kingdom.
Sanlam's Group chief executive, Dr Johan van Zyl, said that the acquisition of Buckles reflects further progress in the Sanlam Group’s strategy of growth and diversification through selective acquisitions and geographic expansion.
“We believe the aggregation of IFAs in the UK market provides a significant opportunity to build on our initiatives aimed at establishing a substantial and leading advisory and wealth management business in the UK. Buckles meets all the criteria as a top quality intermediary business we were seeking for this purpose,” Van Zyl said.
Nigel Speirs, Chief Executive of Buckles, added:
“We are delighted to have received the backing of Sanlam, which will help us achieve our targets for the future. The investment will enable us to continue our programme of acquiring the businesses of IFAs who wish to retire, with the assurance that their clients will continue to be well looked after. Over the last five years we have acquired some dozen client banks in Wales and the North West and we have identified many more.
“Our award winning graduate training and development programme, which has produced a stream of fully qualified professional advisers, has been a great success. With the backing of Sanlam, we aim to roll the programme out in other parts of the country.”
“We plan to continue to expand, building on our very strong administration and support team that has enabled us to provide our advisers with the best possible para planning, IT backup and HR services.”
