Friends First Holdings has acquired financial advisory and asset management company Liberty Asset Management. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed but Liberty is believed to have changed hands for over €6 million.

Liberty, which was founded in 1995, has over €100 million in assets under management and has a staff of around 20.

It is understood the four founders of Liberty - Mr Ian Lawrie, Ms Marie Ainsworth, Mr Kevin O'Shaughnessy and Mr Brian Tyrrell - will share in the proceeds. All four have agreed to contracts that will see them stay at the group for at least five years.

Following the acquisition, Friends First has created a new business called Liberty Wealth Management.

That new business will retain Liberty Asset Management as its sole division. Mr John Murphy, current general manager of distribution at Friends First's life company, becomes chief executive of the new Liberty Wealth holding company, and Mr Lawrie remains managing director of the Liberty Asset Management division.

Liberty Wealth said it intended to acquire a number of other independent firms who, like Liberty, provide financial and investment advice to individuals and companies.

Liberty Wealth Management will operate as a separate entity from the rest of the Friends First operation. Friends First is the Irish subsidiary of Eureko, a pan-European financial services group.

Both Friends First and Liberty said many smaller players in the sector would opt to merge with, or sell to, a bigger company in the next 12 to 18 months because of the tougher regulations in place under the Central Bank's Investment Intermediaries Act.