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  • Status: Current
  • Date: 2021
  • Sector:
    • Financial Services & Insurance
  • Location: UK
  • Buy & Build: 9

www.skerritts.co.uk

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Skerritts

Skerritts is a successful Independent Financial Advisory (IFA) and Wealth Management business providing clients with financial planning and investment management services. Sovereign has backed the management team to support their growth ambitions and deliver an even greater UK presence through a strategy of Buy & Build.

Investment Background

Skerritts was founded in 1990 by Richard Skerritt from his home office. In the years that followed, the business earned a reputation with clients for the quality and strength of its service offering and went from strength to strength. Eight acquisitions were made and Skerritts continued to grow and develop. Keen to further scale the business in the UK, the management team began to look for an investor that could help them achieve their ambitions in this highly fragmented market. They chose Sovereign.

Value Creation

  • At investment Andrew Fisher was appointed Non-Executive Chair. Andrew was previously CEO of Coutts & Co and CEO of Towry Group.
  • Charles Sparrow joined as Group CFO. Charles worked for nearly 20 years at Seven Investment Management, which he co-founded.
  • Former Quilter CEO Paul Feeney named new CEO to succeed founder Richard Skerritts as he became a Non-Executive Director.
  • Nine acquisitions since our investment, including Mercier Allen & Associates, PS Financial Advisers, Bradbury Hamilton and Geoffrey Craig.

THE BUSINESS

Headquartered in Hove, Skerritts provides financial planning and investment management services to both private and corporate clients. The business is currently focused on the South Coast of England and London, with a team of around 80 people.

Skerritts discretionary service is delivered through the company’s in-house investment management solutions, which include a range of Model Portfolio Strategies and Open-Ended Investment Funds.

In partnership with Sovereign, as of September 2023 the business has made 10 acquisitions since we supported the MBO in 2021. These include Mercier Allen, PS Financial Advisers, Bradbury Hamilton and Geoffrey Craig, which grew assets under management and further broadened the Group’s client base and penetration in the South East.

In addition, the business is seeing the benefits of significant investment in the Group’s technology capabilities, which include using Intelliflo as the core operating platform across the Group, and a telephone-based advice service which allows the business to service a broader range of clients on an efficient and high quality basis.

In 2023, founder Richard Skerritts decided to step away from the day-to-day running of the business and we facilitated the recruitment of his successor as CEO, Paul Feeney, the former CEO of Quilter, the FTSE 250 wealth manager.

Sovereign continues to back the management team to support their growth ambitions and deliver an even greater UK presence through a strategy of Buy & Build.


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THE STORY SO FAR

Skerritts has all the right building blocks and, importantly, the right values to become one of the leading wealth management businesses in this country, and with the continued backing of Sovereign Capital, that's exactly what we are going to create.

Paul Feeney / CEO / Skerritts