Count subsidiary nabs Melbourne firm

Accurium has entered into a binding agreement to acquire independent boutique McGing Advisory & Actuarial.

This is a Melbourne actuarial firm that was established in 2010 and is generating $2.1 million in revenue, Count said.

Its principals, Sean McGing and Neekhil Shah, will join the Accurium team to provide continuity for clients and provide actuarial expertise.

Count CEO Hugh Humphrey said: “The acquisition strengthens Count’s service proposition, building on our leading actuarial capability. It deepens our retirement income expertise and reinforces our commitment to delivering high-quality outcomes for clients through stronger collaboration with advisers.”

The announcement comes just two weeks after Count announced its subsidiary CountPlus One had entered into a binding agreement to acquire the accounting and audit client base of Brigden & Partners. The accounting firm has offices in Hornsby and Sydney’s central business district and $1.7 million in revenue.

In May, Count Gold Coast acquired the accounting clients of MJG Partnership and Harrison & Harrison. The two practices are both located in Queensland and offer accounting, taxation, bookkeeping and lending services. The transactions were understood to bring in additional recurring revenues of $2.8 million, driving Count Gold Coast to achieve an annualised revenue of approximately $18 million following completion.

In August at Count’s financial results, Humphrey said the firm was keen to do “transformative” mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals now that it had completed the integration of Diverger, which it acquired in March 2024.

Humphrey said the firm was very active with M&A activity, completing one every five weeks during the year, and it noted the acquisition size and strategic value of the deals it is enacting are “trending upward”, with the average annual equity partner firm revenue sitting at $8 million.

“We are very interested in doing more transformations and have the capacity and track record to do so very well and have built some compelling capabilities in the past. We are interested in the right sort of opportunity and right quality of business,” Humphrey said.

“We took on some debt with the acquisition of Diverger but left ample headroom for day-to-day M&A activity. Any big transformation would be complemented by a capital raising as well.”