Howden’s 2022 acquisition of Aston Lark cost the company almost £730m, according to the broker’s annual accounts for the year to September 2022.
According to the results, Howden made a pre-tax loss of £39.4m compared with a £6.1m pre-tax profit in 2021. The group’s loss for the year after tax and minority interest changes was £51.6m compared with a loss of £37m in 2021.
The Companies House filing revealed that in April 2022 Howden acquired 100% of Hammersmith TopCo, the ultimate parent company of Aston Lark, for a total purchase consideration of £729.9m made up of £654m cash and £75.9m in equity.
As of September 2022 Aston Lark had contributed £91.8m in revenue and £3.7m in operating profit.
The filing showed that the October 2021 acquisition of Align Financial Holdings and its controlled subsidiaries was for a total purchase of £397.3m, comprised of £377.8m cash and £19.5m in equity.
The group also paid £190m for Italian broker Assiteca, £90.5m for SPF Private Clients Holdings, £61.2m for UK Global, a total of £38.3m for Born Consulting, £35.7m for Mercury Raven Cell, and £12.3m for JF Dunne in April 2022.
The acquisitions helped Howden ramp up headcount with an average number of employees during the year of 10,758, up 44% from 7,494 in 2021.
It’s revenue also increased by 56% to £1.63bn from £1.04bn, with operating profit more than doubling to £181m, up from £57.3m.
