Mortgage Advice Bureau completes £72m acquisition of Fluent Money

The Mortgage Advice Bureau has completed the £72.2million acquisition of mortgage and insurance advice app Fluent Money.

The deal, which was first announced in May, received approval from the UK financial watchdog last week and is expected to ‘significantly’ boost profits next year.

Bolton-based Fluent Money is a fast-growing digital firm founded in 2008 that specialises in centralised telephone mortgage advice. 

Telephone advice: Fluent Money helps customers with mortgages, insurance and bridge loans

Over the years, the business has expanded to offer advice about unsecured loans, bridging finance, home and life insurance, as well as equity release.

Derby-based MAB offers mortgage advice throughout the UK from a network of over 1600 advisers with access to over 90 lenders, both face-to-face and over the phone. 

Announcing the purchase, MAB said: ‘Fluent’s model is built on an end-to-end digital customer journey supported by telephony advice.

‘This combination delivers an exceptional customer experience across Fluent’s range of products.’

MAB chief executive Peter Brodnicki said the acquisition would help the company access more customers and accelerate growth.

Fluent Money made a pre-tax profit of £949million in the year to the end of March 2021, the latest available filing to Companies House shows.

That’s down from £2.7million the previous year as lockdown temporarily halted the property market, although the firm said it had increased its market share during the year.

MAB said Fluent Money was ‘currently experiencing strong momentum, with the potential for accelerated growth and market share gains resulting from rapidly increasing lead flow as the business scales’.

MAB shares were down 1.5 per cent to 865.60p in afternoon trading.