Fairstone has acquired Sidmouth-based East Devon Associates, adding five staff and 500 clients to Fairstone's business.

East Devon partnered with Fairstone via its downstream buy out proposition in 2019, and has seen a 17% increase in revenue during their integration phase, Fairstone says.

It is Fairstone's 50^th acquisition, with deals adding £350m of client assets so far this year.

Fairstone acquired East2west Financial Services and Brantwood Financial Planning in January.

Lee Hartley, CEO at Fairstone, said his firm has more deals in the pipeline for this year.

Global private equity house TA Associates took a significant stake in the Chartered Financial Planning firm last year to help fund additional acquisitions.

Long standing private equity backers Synova also reinvested into the group.

Asset management firm Alcentra, the European arm of BNY Mellon also increase the scale of acquisition facilities available to Fairstone.

Mr Hartley said: “The combined expertise and backing of TA Associates, Synova and Alcentra provides us with the capacity to expand our acquisition activity with the benefit of an exceptionally deep and wide capital base. This underpins our growth trajectory, and we are looking to bring more ambitious firms into the group over the course of the next 10 years and beyond.”

Fairstone has been making acquisitions for ten years, and is now one of the largest Chartered Financial Planning firms in the UK.

Mr Hartley said: “We’ve now reached three very significant milestones which reflect our substantial growth in a very clear fashion. These are real indicators of maturity and are also important markers in our mission to establish ourselves as the leader in the whole-of-market wealth advisory space.

“Our first acquisition 10 years ago laid the foundations for our exceptional London business that has evolved from those origins. Thanks to the success of our unique Downstream Buy Out (DBO) acquisition programme, we now enjoy a truly national footprint, delivering first-class service to clients countrywide.

“Building on this position, our plan is to accelerate the group’s growth through continued focus on our proven proposition and targeting some select new geographies. We really do want to put clear blue water between ourselves and some of our peers.”

Formed in Newcastle, Fairstone has developed into a UK-wide operation with 42 locations, 400 regulated advisers and 410 operational staff. The business now oversees £13bn in funds under management for 40,000 clients.