Tenet completes Premier acquisition

4 October 2004

The move brings the number of advisers within the group to over 5,000 and Tenet says it affirms the group's ambition to become a dominant generalist distributor of financial and related products.

Following the transaction Tenet says it will lead the way in providing a complete solution for non-investment advisers and enhance the benefits to all its advisers including giving access to the best commission rates and exclusive deals.

Premier is a network business supporting around 2,500 non-investment advisers across healthcare, protection and mortgage products. Premier will continue to trade independently within the Tenet Group in order to preserve its unique proposition, continuing Tenet's traditional approach to acquisitions.

Premier's introduction to the Tenet Group should see continued improvement to its already comprehensive IT infrastructure whilst providing an additional compliance service for Premier members. Tenet expects to benefit from the acquisition with the introduction of management expertise in the non-investment environment.

Simon Hudson, chief executive of Tenet, says: "We expect this acquisition to be a catalyst for the group in the non-investment arena. The development also represents a major step toward our strategic goal of confirming ourselves as one of the major distributors of financial products in the UK, with 10,000 advisers within 10 years".

And Michael Cooke, managing director of Premier, says: "Now we have access to fully authorised mortgage, protection and healthcare business, which non-investment advisers will value when the alternative is closing their doors to new business.

"The regulatory and financial strength of Tenet combined with our service offering will be a powerful force in the marketplace. Existing and potential clients will find this an irresistible proposition."