LONDON, UK: Kingswood Holdings (AIM: KWG), the international, fully integrated wealth and investment management group, has exchanged and completed on the acquisition of EBS, a financial planning firm based in Buckinghamshire.

The business will be acquired for total cash consideration of up to £5.08m, payable over a five-year period. £2.75m will be paid at closing and the balance paid on a deferred basis.

David Lawrence, UK CEO at Kingswood, commented: “I’m delighted by the ever expanding footprint of Kingswood into new counties, as well as announcing the acquisition of JCH today, the completion of EBS also takes us into a new county.

For over 30 years, EBS have a long-established presence in Buckinghamshire. They have a simple aim; to make complicated financial matters as simple as possible to help clients meet their goals and make their life as easy as possible. This mirrors what we strive for at Kingswood.

“We have a strong pipeline of activity, with a further five potential acquisitions in exclusive due diligence. Our near-term target is to build our UK AUA/M in excess of £10bn in the U.K. and £14bn globally.”

EBS offers a wide range of financial planning services including; retirement planning, savings and investment advice, protection, and inheritance tax planning. With three lead advisers and seven colleagues in total, EBS hold over £135m AUA. In the year ending March 2022 EBS generated revenue of £1.56m and profit before tax of £806k.

Miles Burr, Director at EBS commented: “We are delighted to be joining Kingswood. We have invested a huge amount of time in carefully investigating our options for a possible sale, looking to find the most suitable ‘partner’ that would enable us to take our business forward in a way that benefits our clients and staff. Kingswood, as a leading advice and wealth management business, have the team, culture and resources to enable us to do this.

“We have been very impressed with Kingswood’s proposition, their systems and senior management. They are a great fit for EBS and we firmly believe we will be able to achieve our ambition of delivering the best possible long-term outcomes for our business, staff and, most importantly, our clients.”

Kingswood will satisfy the consideration due to the shareholders of EBS through a drawdown of its new funding facility, as announced on 17 October 2022.