Nucleus Financial Platforms has announced the acquisition of investment platform and wealth management software provider, Third Financial.

The deal will allow Nucleus to extend the platform solutions it offers advisory firms of all sizes.

Nucleus is one of the UK’s largest adviser platform groups with over £80bn of assets under administration (AUA) from 250,000 customers. The transaction for Third Financial is estimated to take the group’s platform AUA to circa £90bn.

Third Financial saw its revenue increase by more than 30% in 2023. It has over 50 clients in the UK with £6bn of assets under administration on its platform and a further £40bn of assets administered via its software system, Tercero.

Nucleus is being advised on the transaction by Fenchurch Advisory Partners and Slaughter and May, while Third Financial is being advised by GP Bullhound and Osborne Clarke.

“By combining our scale, expertise and relationships, with their innovative technology, we’ll be able to offer a broader proposition to serve the needs of wealth managers and advisory businesses across the sector,” commented Nucelus CEO, Richard Rowney.

“We’ve long admired the team that Ian has built at Third Financial and what they’ve achieved. Their focus on innovation and client centricity has clearly differentiated their business, establishing them as one of the leading investment platform providers, and they will be a great addition to our group.”

Group chief executive of Third Financial, Ian Partington, added: “A crucial factor in the decision to join Nucleus is that we feel very culturally aligned. Delivering excellence for our clients has always been core to our success, and in the Nucleus team we found that quality fully reflected.

“Now with our combined expertise and resource we can deliver even more to existing and future clients both in terms of products and service. Collectively our focus will remain on running a stable and profitable expanded service, continuing to support clients so they can deliver great outcomes for their customers.”

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