Financial services firm Life Strategies has returned to Irish ownership after management and staff bought back the company from UK-based Vertex Financial Services Holdings.

Directors including managing director Dermot Corry and Life Strategies employees paid €2.7 million in cash for the Dublin firm, now the largest Irish-owned actuarial consultancy in the country.

The management buyout comes less than six years after British software company Marlborough Stirling, now known as Vertex, acquired Life Strategies for the equivalent of €6 million.

The purchase price included shares in Marlborough, which went public shortly after the acquisition. The stock slumped when the dotcom bubble burst in 2001.

The latest sale of Life Strategies was triggered when a year ago, "Marlborough was bought by Vertex which, in turn, is owned by United Utilities. There wasn't a real fit as the two businesses were very different," said Jim Murphy, director. "So the sale was mainly a strategic decision rather than a tactical one."

Since 2000, revenue at Life Strategies has risen an average of 16 per cent a year, and stood at €3.8 million last year. Net profit jumped to €510,335 in 2004, the latest year for which earnings are available, from €375,859 in 2003, according to Mr Murphy. On this basis, Life Strategies's management and staff paid 5.3 times 2004 earnings for the company.

Life Strategies's five directors will take a majority stake of 85 per cent in the firm, with other employees acquiring shares directly and through an approved profit-sharing scheme. The purchase was financed by employees' personal equity and by loans from Bank of Scotland Ireland.