Aston Lark is in advanced talks to acquire five healthcare advice businesses.
Peter Blanc, CEO of Aston Lark, revealed the details to Health & Protection following the group’s completion of its second acquisition this year – Healthwise Group.
Blanc said the group has “several” deals in the pipeline and expects to complete more in coming months.
“We are actually looking to build the pipeline to find smaller employee benefits, healthcare and protection-based brokers to join our practice,” Blanc said.
“We’ve now got very much a nationwide practice of employee benefits and healthcare and it’s an area that we’re very keen to invest in.
“We are in advanced discussions with five healthcare businesses so hopefully over the course of the next few months, one or two of those will move to fruition.
“We’re constantly looking to build the pipeline. And we’ve got practically an unlimited appetite over the next few years because it’s a real growth area for us,” he added.
Elaborating on the group’s acquisition strategy, Blanc said while the it is buying all sorts of firms, it favours growing businesses.
“If we can buy a business where perhaps the owner may be older and looking to retire but he or she has got some cracking younger people in the business who are keen to take it on, then we can facilitate that,” he continued.
“So we can buy out the vendor and then create an equity ownership story for the next tier down. So that’s something that we’re really good at as a business.”
According to Blanc, the business now has 340 employee shareholders and focuses on incentivising second tier management.
“We do see this quite a lot. Lots of businesses were set up 20 or 30 years ago and the owners of the business are now looking to retire but of course the people working in the business haven’t got the money to buy the business,” Blanc said.
“Of course the owners typically want a good outcome for their company and for their staff and I’d like to think that we provide that outcome for staff and clients and businesses alike.”
Touching on the sorts of businesses Aston Lark would be reluctant to purchase, Blanc added the group is hesitant about owners who would sell the business and set up again shortly afterwards and pursue their former clients.
“We’re very wary of that. That’s not to say we’d never buy a business from a younger vendor but we have to be convinced that they want to join us for the right reasons long term,” Blanc concluded.
