Lee Birkett, chief executive officer of Prestbury, commented: “This show of support from the City is testimony to the quality of the Prestbury team and the strength of our electronic proposition.
"Over the last 12 months we have transformed Prestbury into an extremely efficient network, delivering a purely electronic proposition. This £1 million fundraising in such a challenging climate; positions Prestbury for an even stronger 2007 and allows us to accelerate the proven scalability of the Prestbury model. Our acquisition of Blue Pearl 18 months ago highlights what can be done when introducing additional scale to a business without increasing overheads. We welcome the opportunity for strategic discussions with other networks; who feel that their advisers would benefit from this type of professional consolidation and the obvious benefits to all that it brings.
"The fundraising adds another £1 million to our £1.5 million positive balance sheet at a time when the regulator is taking a long hard look at the financial stability of networks. The regulator is being extremely robust in its policing and we must praise them for that, as the four networks who were barred from recruiting discovered earlier in the year. For the record; I would like to clarify that Prestbury was by no means one of the four.
"As a result of raising this additional capital, Prestbury will be introducing in January 2007 a financial assistance programme for newly recruited quality advisers, namely those individuals who can confirm that they completed £50,000 commission in the previous year. This service is also available to current Prestbury appointed representative (AR) firms who wish to bring an additional adviser to their business.”
