Snowball, the acquisitive Australia-listed wealth manager, has bought a Melbourne-based family office advisory firm following its recent merger with a rival.

Snowball Group, the Australian-listed wealth manager, has bought a Melbourne-based family office advisory firm, Jeena, following its recent merger with a rival.

Jeena, established in 1991 by Pranlal Jeena, services a number of high net worth families and manages around A$55 million ($56 million) in funds under advice, said Snowball in a statement.

Jeena will be integrated into Snowball’s newly-acquired advisory brand, Shadforth. In June this year, Snowball Group merged with rival Shadforth Financial Group Holdings, creating one of the largest independent Australian wealth managers, with 188 financial advisors nationally.

Shadforth’s Melbourne office will absorb Jeena’s staff, and Jeena will be rebranded Shadforth.

Snowball paid A$3.7 million for the firm, with 72 per cent in cash and 28 per cent in Snowball shares. The transaction is expcted to deliver A$1.8 million in ongoing net operating revenue on an annualised basis, said the firm.

“Jeena is a high quality business with a compelling client value proposition that will complemenet Shadforth’s existing offering to its HNW clients. Jeena’s clients will also benefit from its future ability to leverage the wider service offering and business efficiencies inherent in the Shadforth model,” said Snowball’s managing director Tony Fenning.

As at 30 September 2011, Snowball had A$10.8 billion in funds under advice, A$9.2 billion in funds under administration and A$3.9 billion in funds under management. FuM grew 5 per cent on the previous quarter although funds under administration and funds under advice fell 6 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.