Metis Ireland, a financial planning firm for wealthy individuals that was once half owned by Davy, is set to be acquired by NFP Ireland, one of the most active buyers in a fast-consolidating sector, according to sources.
Founded in Limerick in 2014, Metis provides financial planning and wealth management services to high-net-worth individuals, business owners and families, and currently manages about €700 million for clients. It plans to double this “in the next few years”, according to its website.
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Davy acquired a 50 per cent stake in Metis in 2019. However, management and staff of the advisory firm bought back the holding in 2023, a year after Bank of Ireland purchased Davy in the wake of the stockbroking firm being hit by a Central Bank fine.
It is believed that the NFP Ireland deal values Metis, which also has an office in Dublin, at about €15 million.
A spokesman NFP Ireland declined to comment, while Metis’s managing director and co-founder, Carl Widger, did not respond to calls and messages left at his office over the past two days.
New York-based insurance broker and wealth management firm NFP, which is part of professional services group Aon, entered the Irish market in 2020 through the purchase of HMP Insurance and Pension Advisors and has since followed up with nine further deals, including Aiken Insurances, ReSure Corporate Brokers, HC Financial and, last year, the HR Suite.
The company spokesman declined to say how much assets NFP Ireland manages or provides advice on for clients.
The wider Irish market has seen a flurry of deals in the past five years as it followed waves of consolidation in the UK and North America. The ultimate backers of many of the purchasing vehicles are private equity firms.
Other leading consolidators in recent times include UK-owned and private equity backed Fairstone Ireland and Howden Ireland; and Irish family-owned companies such as LHK Group, SYS Financial and Gallivan Financial.
Gallivan Financial, owned by the Killarney-based Gallivan family who sold their former insurance broking business in 2022, earlier this month sealed its sixth acquisition in two years. The purchase of Dublin-based Doyle Pension & Insurance Management brings its total assets under management and advice to more than €1.3 billion.
SYS Financial, founded by former Tipperary hurling star Tony Delaney, this week announced the acquisitions of two financial planning practices, BMC Financial Planning and Billy Phelan Financial Services. They have added €130 million to SYS’s client assets under management (AUM), bringing its total to over €800 million.
With further acquisitions in the pipeline, SYS Financial is targeting €1.3 billion by the end of June.
Total net Irish household wealth has grown by 120 per cent to €1.34 trillion between the start of 2009, immediately after the financial crash, and the end of last September, Central Bank of Ireland data shows.
Financial assets – which strip out money tied up in family homes – have doubled to €589 billion over the 16 years, though mainly comprised of cash on deposit and insurance and pension entitlements.