IFA Johnston Financial on verge of completing two-year management buyout

The firm is set to complete the MBO process in October, which it said would accelerate a period of "ambitious growth" in a bid to double the size of the business. 

Johnston Financial said it has plans to reach £1bn of assets under management (AUM) within the next five years. The firm currently has more than £420m AUM.

The MBO will also see founder and chairman Adrian Johnston sell his remaining 27% stake in the 32-year-old company to business partner John McArdle, who became managing director in May 2018.

As a result, McArdle, who joined the business back in 1997 as a financial planner, will own 90% of the company and director Suzanne Gray will own 10%. The buyout deal, negotiated by legal firm Rooney Nimmo in Edinburgh's West End, was funded from retained profits.

McArdle said the firm is a testament to Johnston's "vision and talent" and that the company has built not only a loyal client base but also a strong and talented team.

He added: "All of this give us the perfect platform to evolve and grow even further. After such an impressive career, it was only right that we made sure succession was also going to be as smooth and seamless as possible."

The MD said Johnston was a successful business and a well-known name in the financial sector but had "flown under the radar" in terms of the wider public. 

"Now the time is right to switch things up," McArdle added. "It will be a period of evolution, not of wholesale change."  

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• Topics
• Companies
• Johnston Financial
• MBO
• John McArdle
• Adrian Johnston
• Suzanne Gray