SimplyBiz Group has completed the purchase of Home Information Group (HIG).

HIG was formed by its management team in 2005 and operates under the trading brands of Gateway Surveyors and Sonas Surveyors. Gateway is a panel manager to the bank and building society sectors and is appointed to key bank and building society panels, as well as the second charge lending community.

Sonas is the company’s in-house employed workforce comprising 70 employed surveyors operating in England and Wales.

The management team has experience in both surveying and panel management and has representation on the Building Society Valuation Panel plus the Equity Release Council. The current management structure will remain in place and be joined by SimplyBiz Mortgages CEO, Martin Reynolds and Matt Timmins, joint managing director of the SimplyBiz Group. HIG is the 12th company within the SimplyBiz Group and its third acquisition in the past 12 months.

Martin Reynolds, CEO of SimplyBiz Mortgages, said: “The acquisition of HIG forms part of our strategy to create a wider financial services portfolio of companies. We believe that the valuation market will have challenges during the next few years and our future investment in HIG will help to proactively position it as a partner of trust.

“We are looking forward to working with the lending market to create mutually beneficial partnerships.”

Marcus Radcliffe, CEO of HIG, added: “Joining the SimplyBiz Group is an exciting step in growing our businesses to its next level. The combined scale and experience of the Group is a major positive for our future dealings with all lenders and panel manager partners.”