Continuum Financial Services will be acquired by M&G

M&G has acknowledged that it has a contract in place to buy Continuum Financial Services within the next two years.

The London-based company will purchase a starting 49.9% stake in the company this year, with an agreement in place to buy the remaining shares over the following two years.

They did not disclose the purchase price.

The Plymouth-based company was established in 2014, and its 60 independent financial advisors serve clients across the UK. Over 12,000 clients and more than £1.5 billion in assets are under the control of Continuum.

The company will continue to operate under its own name and will coexist with M&G's current advisory, platform, and investment businesses.

David Montgomery, managing director of M&G Wealth, commented on the acquisition in the following manner: "“This deal adds another high-class independent financial advice business into M&G Wealth to complement our existing network of advisers."

"There is a growing need in the UK for consumers to be able to access financial advice services in a way that best suits their circumstances and requirements."

"This ‘advice gap’ is something we are keen to help address. Continuum has a terrific reputation in the industry and grows our capability to provide a wider range of advice services and investment solutions to more clients."

After acquiring Sandringham Partners in January 2022, M&G now has more financial services under its belt.

The company added that 4.4 percent of its assets under management (AUM) were rated as "unsatisfactory," while 60.8 percent needed to improve their investment performance. These numbers have increased since 2021, when M&G determined that 0 percent of AUM had unsatisfactory investment performance and 59.2 percent needed to improve.

As of December 31, 2021, M&G had €439.5 billion in AUM.

"We would observe that many of M&G’s funds (particularly the equity funds) follow a ‘value’ investment approach, whereby managers look for mispriced opportunities among lowly valued stocks," the report said in explaining the investment performance.

By fLEXI tEAM