Brisbane-based financial advisory businesses, Henderson Matusch Group (HMG) and Logiro have announced a non cash merger to create a multi disciplinary professional services firm with 42 employees, including 14 financial advisers, and capability spanning holistic financial planning, risk insurance, portfolio management, mortgage broking and estate planning.

The businesses, which are both part of AZ NGA, said the deal would deliver immediate scale benefits and generate significant synergy opportunities.

The combined entity will have a strong platform for organic growth and an expanded balance sheet to enable potential future acquisitions.

HMG Chief Executive Officer Paul Fog said the merger could take up to 12 months to complete, with both parties committed to ensuring continuity of operations and no adverse impact on staff, productivity and profitability, as part of a formal change management plan.

“Growth and scale are important but this merger is also about people. It is getting harder and harder to recruit good people, and this deal brings serious talent to HMG,” Mr Fog said.

“It significantly expands our capability and capacity, and positions us strongly to continue meeting the current and future needs of our clients.”

Under the arrangement, Logiro will move into HMG’s Brisbane office but continue operating as a separate entity for a period of time to seamlessly integrate operations.

By year end, functions including IT, marketing and brand will be consolidated.

According to Chris Shiels, Logiro CEO and principal adviser, the transaction will give Logiro clients an industrial strength financial advice framework, access to superior money management strategies, and scale benefits.

“The advice landscape is rapidly changing, requiring advice businesses to change too,” he said.

“While Logiro is largely the same business it was five years ago, the compliance burden is much greater. This deal will free me to spend more time helping my clients, which gives me the most joy and satisfaction. It’ll also allow more time to focus on winning new clients and growing the business.”

AZ NGA CEO Paul Barrett said the deal reinforced the value of having a large, experienced business partner, citing AZ NGA’s network of 73 accounting and advisory firms in 52 locations across Australia.

“AZ NGA is a federation of firms and part of our strategy is to connect people and help them explore opportunities to grow through mergers, acquisitions and organically,” he said.

“Firms of the future understand the power of mergers and acquisitions to expand a business’ capability and capacity, and turbo charge growth.”

“The most successful mergers are ones where both entities know each other well and share common values and motives.”

Mr Barrett said mergers presented a unique growth strategy because they did not necessarily require a large capital outlay or impose an ongoing debt burden on businesses but still enabled benefits to be extracted.