Another financial advice acquisition for The Skipton Group

The Skipton Building Society Group has announced that it has acquired a 75% shareholding in Thomson Shepherd Ltd, the Scottish based IFA (which trades as Coggans Wood in Edinburgh).

The acquisition comes two weeks after Skipton acquired 85% of Torquil Clark and follows the Group’s strategy of strengthening its financial advice offering. This is the fifth financial advice company within the Skipton Group, which includes Skipton Financial Services, Pearson Jones and Parnell Fisher Child.

Scottish-based Thomson Shepherd is a high quality financial planning business which employs 35 staff - including 12 advisers - and has £400 million of funds under advice. Operating from offices in Edinburgh, Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness its core areas of business are the giving of investment advice and pensions, trust and estate planning.

David Cutter, group corporate development director of Skipton, said, “One of the Skipton Group’s key areas of focus is financial advice and we’ve made no secret of our desire to acquire companies with quality staff, reputations and business models - and that’s exactly what we’ve done in welcoming Thomson Shepherd. The company is a well-respected regional IFA with highly qualified staff and a young leadership team that has energy and enthusiasm to grow the business. We’re therefore very pleased that we’ll be part of that growth and that by working with our other financial advice teams, we can bring even greater benefits to the company.”

Whilst Thomson Shepherd will now report to the Skipton’s main board of directors, it will continue to be run as an independent company and will retain its brand.

Gordon Wilson, managing director of Thomson Shepherd, added, “We are delighted that Thomson Shepherd has become part of the Skipton Group. Skipton is a strong and forward thinking financial institution, committed to the growth and development of the business which will be of future benefit to our staff and clients alike. We will continue to look to add to our excellent team of consulting and support staff and to seek out other quality financial advice businesses to acquire.”