Continuing a run of strategic acquisitions, newly-listed Equity Story Group  (ASX:EQS) just snapped up the work and art of markets commentator and A Rich Life founder, Claude Walker.

Equity Story (ASX:EQS) has this morning confirmed a binding Share Purchase Agreement to acquire 100% of Blue Tree Equity, trading as A Rich Life (ARL), thus snapping up the interests associated with ARL inventor, Claude Walker.

A Rich Life is an online periodical covering Ethical Investing, Arts, Culture and News.

Walker, a well-known equities analyst with a pretty unique take on ASX caps – big and small – brings to Equity Story around 400 paying subscribers; a fun new website, a regular new revenue stream, and Claude’s strong connection with a new kind of investing audience.

Perhaps more interestingly, Walker’s utilitarian approach to investing is fairly faswcinating and his work over several years comes with a backlog of investment ideas which can help expand and differentiate Equity Story’s own ambitious library of content.

 

The plot thickens

EQS has been on a bit of an expansion rampage since listing barely a few months ago.

Last week the Aussie-listed trading advisor, educator and fund manager, established a new 100% subsidiary, Equity Story Securities, which now offers a long list of expanded financial services as a Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR).

Which is really good, CEO Trent McGraw told Stockhead.

“With Equity Story becoming an AFSL Corporate Authorised Representative, EQS – which already provides stock market advice, research, investor education and management services – can now broaden and deepen its capacity to meet the needs of both retail and wholesale investors here in Australia.”

 

New verticals

And from way back in February EQS already had designs on growing out the business into new revenue verticals by expanding regulatory licensing in Australia and the United States.

The latest deal will see Walker join Equity Story as the full time Editor in Chief of A Rich Life and will continue to grow the service, while also joining the Equity Story commentary team, various poddies and other media.

On the money front, half a million in cash changing hands is  great for EQS shareholders, furthering Equity Story’s clearly defined prospectus objectives –  to provide high-value investment knowledge, content and services to the large and growing segment of investors who EQS believes are “underserviced by the traditional wealth advice industry and execution-only trading platforms.”

And snapping up ARL follows a string of other strategic achievements EQS has been steadily knocking over since listing back in February. Only last week EQS cracked open the US market, with the US Securities Exchange Commission officially green-lighting United States SEC financial licensing.

“EQS has now delivered on these regulatory expansion initiatives,” McGraw told Stockhead last month.

 

EQS meets ARL

  • A talented, passionate and informative new lead commentator to Equity Story podcasts and content offerings;
  • By becoming an Authorised Representative of EQS’s AFSL, Claude Walker will be able to expand his commentary on ASX stocks and investment ideas;
  • A new sub-brand servicing a younger audience, with a mix of content on news, political affairs, the arts, as well insightful market analysis and stock investment suggestions;
  • Around 400 paying subscribers generating current annual revenues of approximately $154,000;
  • A further 2,900 free members and a base for potential future paying subscribers;
  • A small team of part-time contracted journalists and contributors; and
  • Extensive cross-marketing and promotional opportunities across both brands.

 

So, what is A Rich Life?

A Rich Life is an online periodical covering ASX investing, the arts, and news which processes and condenses the torrent of informational noise people are subjected to each day to produce concise and intuitive content which questions the prevailing narrative. The objective of A Rich Life is to keep its readers informed about what matters, and challenging conventional wisdom with astute and penetrative analysis. For more information see www.arichlife.com.au.

 

And who’s this Claude Walker?

Claude Walker started his blog Ethical Equities in 2013 and began freelancing for Motley Fool Australia that same year, where he later became first the research analyst and then advisor in charge of the small-cap stock recommendation service, Motley Fool Hidden Gems, from 2015 until 2018.

From 2018, Claude worked as an analyst and automated content template creator for Simply Wall St.

Claude founded digital media platform A Rich Life in 2019 and has grown the audience and social media following substantially over the past three years.

 

Here he is in a press release form: 

“I am delighted to announce the sale of A Rich Life to Equity Story Group.  As part of this transaction, I will be continuing in my role as Managing Editor of A Rich Life, which I am incentivised to grow. I look forward to assisting with the long-term success of Equity Story Group, in this role.“

“This sale will increase the time I can spend reporting on the best investment opportunities and will also allow me to offer investment recommendations.

“I wish to wholeheartedly thank our supporters, as well as our friends and business partners.

“Without your support, collaboration, and encouragement, A Rich Life could not exist. ”

And here’s what McGraw thinks about it all:

“This acquisition marks our first step towards our wider mission to provide a deep variety of investment content, perspective and analysis as part of Equity Story’s financial investor media offering.

“We continue to seek acquisition discussions with other share market analysts and financial commentators to further broaden our content offering to our growing subscriber base.”

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Equity Story are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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