COMMERCIAL lawyers at Newcastle firm Muckle were called upon by a fast-growing financial services firm to help with its largest acquisition to date.

South Tyneside-based Moneygate raised its profile and growth targets last year after securing multi-million-pound backing from an American company.

Moneygate, which was launched by Lee Hartley in 2006, used the firepower from this deal to go on an acquisition spree, securing three takeovers in the space of a few months.

Its legal work on the deals was handled by Muckle and Moneygate turned to the Time Central firm again when it set out to make its largest acquisition to date.

Early last month it announced a deal to secure City-based IFA business Equus Independent Financial Management Ltd.

The acquisition has seen Moneygate take on Equus’ 37 advisers and a further 34 staff – taking Moneygate's total number of advisers to around 100 and increasing the total value of client’s funds it advises on by £1bn.

Equus looks after the affairs of more than 10,000 high-net-worth individuals and has annual revenues of around £5m. Lee Hartley, chief executive of Moneygate, said: "We are delighted to have completed this acquisition, as it is a significant and strategic part of our build plan.

“We have built an excellent relationship with Muckle and it is a real asset to work with a law firm that understands your business objectives when trying to execute an acquisition that is far from simple.

“This deal took around 12 months to complete and the advice we received from Muckle throughout the process was invaluable.”

Philip Clare, associate solicitor at Muckle LLP, who advised Moneygate on the acquisition, said: “We have worked with Moneygate for several years now and have advised them on a number of transactions.

“We are delighted to have played an important role on this deal and it is great to see a local business pushing ahead with its exciting growth plans.

“Muckle prides itself on the strong relationships it has with its clients and I look forward to continuing to work with Moneygate in the future.”

Just weeks after the Equus deal Moneygate bought Sheffield-based IFA Results Financial.

Results Financial has a presence across South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Bedfordshire.

It was founded in 1998 by its current managing director Mike Bell, who has taken a divisional director role within Moneygate.