Efficient Group concludes two acquisitions

Johannesburg - The Efficient Group [JSE:EFG] announced in a voluntary statement on Wednesday that it has concluded two transactions.

In terms of the transactions Efficient Financial Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Efficient Group, will acquire the business of Vital Consult National Holdings as a going concern and the Efficient Group will acquire the entire issued share capital of Vital Consult Wealth Management.

The effective date of both transactions is 1 March 2017.

Vital Consult is a category I licensed financial services provider based in Cape Town with a distribution footprint in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng. It currently manages 174 registered financial advisers on its own licence and 23 product supplier agents on a third party license.

Vital Consult's total assets under advice is approximately R1.7bn. Efficient Group regards the Vital Consult acquisition is strategically important to the group as it will increase Efficient Financial Services' distribution footprint to approximately 300 registered financial advisers and its assets under advice to approximately R16.6bn.

The acquisition will also enable Efficient Financial Services to increase its regional branch network to 23 regional offices, with adviser support centres in Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. The management and support teams at Vital Consult will be transferred to the employment of Efficient Financial Services.

The Vital Consult acquisition is also regarded as the first step in a larger consolidation project, aimed at aligning the Efficient Group's financial services offering, operations and other synergies.

Efficient Financial Services (trading as Efficient Advise), Vital Consult and Efficient Wealth, as well as a number of the other financial services companies operating in the group's financial services cluster, will, over the next 18 months, merge into a single-brand financial services entity under the banner of Efficient Wealth.

Simultaneously with the Vital Consult acquisition, Efficient Group will acquire the entire issued share capital of Vital Wealth, a category II licensed financial services provider. Vital Wealth is still in its infancy and currently has approximately R41m in assets under management, managed in two collective investment scheme portfolios - the Vital BCI Balanced Fund of Funds and the Vital BCI Cautious Fund of Funds.

These funds will continue to be managed in terms of the existing multi-manager strategy employed by the current asset management team. Vital Wealth will in future form part of the group's investment cluster.