The Property Franchise Group PLC announced that it has launched a new financial services division and appointed Mark Graves to the new role of Financial Services Director, a non-board position. Mark Graves has 30 years' experience at a senior level in the life assurance sector, with FCA authorisation. He has held roles as Managing Director at Sesame Bankhall Group, Head of Network at Pink Network and Managing Director at Linear Financial Services.

The Group intends to pursue a "buy and build" strategy to develop this new division, targeting the acquisition of quality financial services businesses which are relevant to the Group's core business and directly authorised by the FCA. This division will operate as a subsidiary of the Group and will service the Group's existing franchisees. This strategy seeks to enable the financial services division to capitalise on the significant volume of leads generated by the core business, whilst the property franchisees are able to generate further revenue without adding to fixed overheads.

As part of this new strategy and to seed the division, TPFG has acquired a 72.25%. stake in Auxilium Partnership Limited, a protection advisory business, for a non-material sum. Auxilium Partnership is the first business in the newly formed subsidiary, Aux Group Limited.

Auxilium Partnership was launched by Mark Graves in March 2019 with the aim to enfranchise, educate and encourage intermediaries, such as mortgage brokers, to develop their protection business, making it a core part of every mortgage and finance recommendation. The Company has no debt and is cash generative.