iFast’s proposed acquisition of Financial Alliance stake could be more exciting than it looks
The relatively modest investment could burnish the growth strategy of iFast, which is on track for a multi-year growth trajectory
[SINGAPORE] When digital banking and wealth-management platform iFast Corporation announced after market close on Monday (Jan 5) its plan to acquire a 30 per cent stake in Financial Alliance Corporation (FA Corp), it barely registered a blip in the market.
Shares of iFast edged up 0.7 per cent on Jan 6 – the day after – falling far short of the 1.3 per cent rise of the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) the same day.
FA Corp is the holding company of Singapore-based Financial Alliance, a financial advisory firm with over 450 representatives; it is also the majority shareholder of FA Advisory, a licensed financial planning and advisory firm in Malaysia.
iFast believes the acquisition will create a “strategic bridge” between its wealth platform and the business-to-business financial advisory business. This will enable deeper collaboration, enhanced adviser support, and a scalable foundation for future expansion, it said.
Further, the group views FA Corp as a leading non-insurance company-owned player that will emerge among the long-term winners of consolidation in the financial advisory industry in Singapore, where it sees “substantial growth potential”.
The management also signalled the potential listing of FA Corp in the next two to three years.
So, why the ambivalence in the market? One reason could be the relatively small size of the proposed acquisition, at just S$19.6 million.
The net asset value of the assets being acquired stands at some S$13 million, so iFast’s 30 per cent share works out to around S$3.9 million.
This is hardly the headline-grabbing scoop that would excite investors – especially amid news of America’s oil-motivated military action in Venezuela.
While not huge, however, the acquisition is in line with iFast’s overarching strategy to ride the growth wave of the wealth-management industry.
To remain relevant – and indeed, achieve dominance – players must build the requisite scale, operational efficiency and technological leadership, among other critical factors.
From this perspective, the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, and FA Corp could prove to be more valuable to iFast in the long run than what is being reflected in the current topline numbers.
Accelerated growth
While iFast’s core wealth-management platform business continues to thrive, the group is also on track for a multi-year growth trajectory underpinned by a turnaround at iFast Global Bank (iGB) and the ongoing roll-out of its e-Pension project in Hong Kong.
In its latest financial results for the third quarter ended September 2025, iFast logged a 54.7 per cent increase in earnings to S$26 million, supported by a 37 per cent rise in revenue to S$135.8 million.
As at end-September 2025, iFast’s assets under administration (AUA) surged 29.6 per cent year on year to S$30.6 billion, as it marches towards its target of amassing S$100 billion in AUA by 2028-2030.
For the nine-month period, it achieved a record-high return on equity of 26.1 per cent on an annualised basis.
The group’s cash and cash equivalents stood at S$772.43 million as at end-September, reflecting its strong cash-generative business model on the wealth-management front and the conservative balance sheet strategy adopted by iGB.
Clearly, the “smart money” has taken notice.
iFast registered net institutional inflow of S$115 million in the second half of last year, placing it among the top Singapore-listed companies outside the STI in term of inflows.
iFast last year clocked a total return – with dividends reinvested – of 29.7 per cent, pipping the 28.8 per cent return of the STI.
Its performance over the longer term looks even more impressive. Over the past five years, iFast managed a total return of 204.2 per cent, translating to an annualised total return of 24.9 per cent each year.
This trumps the STI’s annualised total return of 15.4 per cent over the same period.
The Financial Alliance investment can be an important enhancement to this growth strategy. It will certainly be exciting to watch as iFast continues to make more astute investment decisions to grow its business – even if these might not be the biggest, most attention-grabbing moves.
