Tenet Group has struck two deals that will oversee the transfer of its appointed representative networks to property finance rivals following a strategic review.
Property group LSL has agreed to buy Tenet Group’s TenetLime mortgage and protection network, which services 231 mortgage and protection advisers, operating within 133 appointed representative firms for up to £12.9m.
TenetLime arranged around £3.9bn mortgages last year, and reported a pretax profit of £900,000 for the year to the end of September 2021, posting £10.1m of gross assets.
LSL plans to integrate the network within its Primis broker group.
The deal also includes the recruitment of 47 brokers by TenetLime operating within 24 appointed representative firms, that are currently members of TenetConnect and TenetConnect Services, which are expected to transfer to TenetLime before the completion of the main deal.
LSL group chief executive David Stewart 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.”
Also, Tenet Group says it has signed an exclusive agreement with the Openwork Partnership that will see appointed representatives in its Tenet Wealth & Investment Network offered the option to transfer to Openwork. It adds that advisers will have the option to retain their independent status in the 2plan Wealth Management network, which was launched in 2007.
Openwork has more than 4,500 advisers based in over 820 firms, which are supported by over 600 staff.
Tenet Group says it has already opened talks with its network members about the moves and expects the transfer of all customers, brokers and other staff to complete by mid-2024.
The firm says after a review of its appointed representative’s business, it found the sector was subject to “significant change” from “external forces such as consolidation, increased regulation, digitisation, new technology expense and the broader inflationary environment”.
Tenet Group concluded that these networks “required scale and diverse revenue streams to remain viable”.
Tenet Group chief executive Helen Ball says: “Openwork and Primis have strong reputations for supporting appointed representatives and they can be confident that their new homes will allow them to grow with the support, freedom and control their businesses need.
“Our focus now is to work with all the parties in these transactions to deliver a smooth transition for our stakeholders.”