LSL buys mortgage adviser network in £12.9 million deal
The franchise giant acquires TenetLime's entire business of 231 advisers, with a possible 47 to be added later.
LSL has added a large network of mortgage advisers to its portfolio with the purchase of the TenetLime business.
The £12.9 million deal includes 278 advisers working for 157 firms who will be integrated into LSL’s PRIMIS Network.
TenetLime provides services to 231 mortgage advisers, operating within 133 companies. Its advisers arranged around £3.9 billion of mortgages last year.
Initial payment
The transaction also includes plans for the recruitment by TenetLime of 47 advisers from 24 firms, that are currently members of TenetConnect and TenetConnect Services. They are expected to transfer to TenetLime prior to completion.
The deal involves an initial payment of up to £5.6 million, and a further payment of up to £4.5 million in the next 12 months.
TenetLime reported profit before tax of £0.9 million for the year ended September 2021, and gross assets of £10.1 million.
Investment
David Stewart, group CEO says: “The increase in membership will help us to further invest in our service offering to member firms as well as delivering scale economics to support further growth.
“The acquisition also underpins our leading position in the mortgage and protection network market, and is fully aligned with our group strategy to develop our financial services network business.”
Rocky results
Earlier this month LSL revealed some rocky trading results, with its home purchase lending reduced by 27%.
LSL’s 2,700 advisors represent around 10% of the total mortgage market. Its 61 estate agency franchisees operate a network of around 300 branches.
The Neg revealed in May that LSL’s entire owned estate agency network of 183 branches would become franchises.
LSL sold its two remaining direct-to-consumer brokerages earlier this year, Embrace Financial Services and First2Protect to Pivotal Growth – its joint venture with Pollen Street Capital – for close to £18 million.
