Australian wealth manager Perpetual Limited announced that it is expanding its high net worth services under its Private Wealth unit following the acquisition of Fordham Group.

Perpetual purchased Fordham, a Melbourne-based advisory firm for private business owners, for A$35 million ($31.75 million). According to a statement released yesterday, the latter had around A$500 million ($453.7 million) in funds under management and advice as of 30 November.

"Fordham represents an attractive opportunity to extend Perpetual's services to private business owners," said David Deverall, the chief executive officer of Perpetual.

"Our current services are focused on high net worth individuals and their families; the acquisition of Fordham brings us new expertise in strategic financial advice, accounting and tax services," he added.

The acquisition will be funded through a combination of internal resources and deferred consideration, and is subject to earn outs over 4 years. Mr Deverall also said that the company is evaluating other opportunities consistent with its strategy of acquiring high quality adviser practices for niche market segments.

The acquisition is expected to be finalised by January 2010. Mark Cummings, currently the chairman of directors for Fordham, will be heading the combined operations of Perpetual Private Clients and Fordham in Victoria.

This is Perpetual's third acquisition in the private wealth segment for the year 2009. In March, the firm bought Financial Pursuit, and in September, took over Grosvenor Financial Services. As of 30 November, its funds under advice figured at around A$8 billion ($7.26 billion).