Mortgage firm completes £73m takeover deal

Mortgage Advice Bureau has completed a deal to buy a majority stake in a fast-growing telephone mortgage advice and specialist lending intermediary for around £73 million.

The firm, which is based on Derby’s Pride Park, has acquired a 75% stake in Bolton-based Fluent Money Group.

Fluent has around 420 employees, including about 125 advisers across mortgages, secured personal loans, later life lending and bridging finance.

The acquisition, funded from MAB’s renewed and increased debt facilities, existing cash resources and the proceeds of a £40 million placing, was agreed in March.

Peter Brodnicki, founder and chief executive of MAB, said: “We are very excited to partner with a like-minded management team and high growth intermediary that is a leader in centralised telephone mortgage advice.

“This acquisition is a perfect example of our strategy to invest in complementary businesses and platforms to help accelerate growth by broadening our proposition to access more customers.”

MAB is regarded as the UK’s most recognised mortgage intermediary brand, winning numerous awards for the quality of its advice and service.

It has over 1,600 advisers offering expert mortgage advice on a local, regional and national level to consumers.

Fluent was founded in 2008 by Kevin Hindley, Tim Wheeldon, Simon Moore and Paul Ford.

According to MAB, Fluent is currently experiencing strong momentum and is well positioned to capture significant new business opportunities.

Mr Brodnicki said: “MAB has targeted the fast-growing sector of national lead generation by using technology to link together its key appointed representatives and invested firms seamlessly.

“Combined, we expect that Fluent and MAB will be able to grow this new market share opportunity quickly and effectively, complementing the local/regional strategy delivered by the rest of MAB’s growing distribution.”

The deal comes after MAB reported a strong 2021 earlier this year, with revenues rising by 27% to £188.7 million.