SYS Group – the fast-growing financial services group founded by Tony Delaney, who left school early at 17 to become a milkman – has bought Dublin-based Donald P McKenna & Associates, bringing the group’s total assets under management to more than €315m.

Nenagh-headquartered SYS, which is now one of the country’s largest independent financial planning and advisory businesses, said the purchase would “continue to build upon our position as one of the leading advisory firms in the Irish market and significantly enhance our presence in Dublin".

Donald P McKenna & Associates has about €15m of funds under management and specialises in financial and retirement planning. The acquisition price for the firm that was establishd in 1986 was not disclosed.

Delaney set up SYS Wealth, a financial advisory practice aimed at wealthy individuals, in 2015 from a spare room in his home. The company – renamed SYS Group in 2020 – now employs about 40 people and has around 6,000 clients.

SYS has offices in Dublin, Cork and Waterford, and its divisions include SYS Private, SYS Mortgages, and SYS Millennial Money Coach.

Revenue at the group jumped last year to €2.9m from €710,000 in 2021 after it set up SYS Tax, a tax advisory service, and after revenue at SYS Mortgages grew by 37pc. The company also worked last year with Irish accountancy firm Quintas to become an official fundraising partner for the firm’s Employment and Investment Incentive Scheme (EIIS) innovation fund. This enabled SYS to offer the EIIS fund as an investment option to its high-net-worth clients.

SYS’s latest acquisition follows its strategic partnership in December with Dublin-based PGM Financial Services, which has about €40m of funds under management.