MWA Financial partners with ThinCats to accelerate national expansion

London-headquartered MWA Financial (MWA) has entered into a long-term partnership with leading alternative finance provider ThinCats to support the group’s plans to build a national firm of independent financial advisers.

The partnership with ThinCats marks the start of “phase two” for the owner-managed MWA, that will see it complete on a number of live acquisitions designed to take adviser numbers to more than 30 and AUA above £1bn over the next 12 to 18 months.

At the heart of the partnership is ThinCats’ ability to provide MWA with access to its pool of transitional debt capital, which provides exiting IFAs with a distinctive and attractive alternative to the large number of consolidators in the market.

MWA was launched by Chief Executive Campbell Banks in 2016 with the ambition of recreating in the UK the holistic advice model prevalent in his native Australia. Banks has more than 25 years’ experience developing financial advice networks in Australia for major organisations including ING, AXA Asia Pacific and AMP.

Ed Rosengarten joined the business in 2021 as Executive Chairman to help execute and accelerate its growth strategy. Before joining MWA, Rosengarten was head of funds at Smith & Williamson and, prior to that, spent 20 years at M&G, latterly as Chief Executive of the firm’s equity business.

The MWA group currently includes Hertfordshire-based Eversley Wealth Management, Hampshire-based Prosperity and Essex-based CHC Wealth Management and has in excess of £400m AUA.

Commenting on the partnership, Rosengarten said: “With the phase one foundations successfully in place, our focus for phase two is on accelerating adviser and asset growth through carefully selected acquisitions and targeted organic growth.”

“The partnership with ThinCats provides us with the complementary capital required to execute our strategy, positioning MWA as an attractive and capable owner-managed alternative to the abundant acquirers in the market.”

Stuart Thompson, Head of Transitional Capital, ThinCats said: “Ed and Cam have established a distinctive and attractive proposition which has all the ingredients to build on its tremendous success to date. Our transitional capital funding is designed to support fast growing businesses pursuing a buy-and-build strategy such as MWA, so are delighted to be playing our part in its exciting plans for the future.” 

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For more information contact:

Andrew Appleyard, MRM - 07909 684 468 / andrew.appleyard@mrm-london.com

About ThinCats

ThinCats is an established alternative lender dedicated to funding mid-sized SMEs with business loans from £1m up to £15m using pioneering data, personal relationships and a pragmatic lending process. ThinCats’ progressive approach has already enabled SMEs to borrow more than £1.3bn. Find out more: www.thincats.com