Equity Story to acquire Baker Young

Publicly-listed investor media company Equity Story has moved to expand into retail stockbroking via the acquisition of Adelaide-based Baker Young Limited.

Equity Story announced its move to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) noting that it would see funds under management grow to $700 million while delivering an expansion of its Wealth Management division to provide access to full-service retail and high net worth investment advice.

It valued the transaction at $4.2 million.

The ASX announcement said Equity Story saw strong synergies between its proprietary CTM trading system and Baker Young’s fundamental research driven approach, “offering clients a unique blend of technical and fundamental insights”.

The transaction entails $4.2 million comprising an upfront payment of $3 million and an earn-out component of $1.2 million payable subject to the Baker Young business satisfying certain conditions over a 10-month post-completion period.

The announcement said the company intends to fund the acquisition through debt.