Members look for last minute A2O buyout

10 February 2010 5:12 pm | By Chris Salih

Money Marketing revealed this week that North-East IFA firm Moneygate was the frontrunner for A20, which went into administration late last month, with administrator Benedict Mackenzie claiming that a deal for the network was imminent.

It is understood that a number of A20 members are unhappy with the terms and would rather proceed with a buyout of the business.

Regulatory Legal partner Gareth Fatchett (pictured), who is co-ordinating the late bid, says he has submitted an offer for the client bank and agencies of A2O on behalf of ex-AR clients. He says: “We have put forward an offer which would allow customers of our clients to be aligned with their IFA. This is a far better solution than a third party with no relationship with the customers”

In January 2008, Moneygate, an AR of Sesame, restructured its business to move out of the mortgage market and focus on the whole of market IFA sector. The deal saw areas of the firm placed into administration with the group closing its standalone mortgage business in December 2008. The group says no advisers or clients were disadvantaged by the move.

Moneygate Group chief executive Lee Hartley says: “We did a restructure in 2008 as part of that we closed our dedicated mortgage business to concentrate on our full IFA business. We completed a major investment deal in October 2009 with a US private equity house a full due-diligence process relating adhering to the rules so every aspect of the business has been approved. We also recently underwent a business risk and audit and received an A1 grade by Sesame, so we are cleaner than clean.”

Moneygate would not comment on the potential deal to take on A2O.

 

 

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