Xafinity has announced its proposed acquisition of Punter Southall Holdings Limited for approximately £153m.

As part its interim results, Xafinity noted that the proposed deal would see Xafinity acquiring Punter Southall’s pensions administration, actuarial consulting and investment consulting businesses.

The three businesses would be combined with Xafinity’s existing businesses, whole Xafinity’s HR Trustees business would be sold to Punter Southall Group.

With this acquisition, Xafinity is aiming to become the largest “pure play” pensions consulting firm in the UK outside of the global consultancies.

With this, Xafinity reported that in the six months to 30 September 2017, the company added five more annuity client wins and recoded performance in line with the board’s expectations. Xafinity’s revenue for HY18 was £26.6m, a two per cent increase from £26m the previous year.

Xafinity co-CEO Paul Cuff commented: “The announcement today regarding the transaction with Punter Southall is very exciting news for everyone at Xafinity, and it follows a successful period for the Company built on the back of a series of impressive client wins. We have a very clear strategy to build market share in the pensions advisory space, and the merger of these three divisions from PS Group with Xafinity will enable us to achieve our aim of becoming the clear alternative to the Big Three in the pensions consultancy sector. The trading environment for Xafinity remains strong, while the pipeline of new business continues to offer real growth opportunities, and we look forward to the rest of the year with confidence.”

Livingbridge Equity Funds fund manager Ken Wotton added: “Xafinity, the specialist pensions consultancy, has announced the acquisition of the pensions business of competitor Punter Southall this morning. This looks like a highly complementary deal that will immediately propel Xafinity into the top 5 players in its sector.

“When the company launched its IPO in February 2017 its strategy was to use its public listing to help become the key consolidator within the sector and to challenge the dominance of the big 3 consultancies. This transaction appears to be exactly in line with the company’s strategy.”

Share Story: