Up and coming Australian advisor Storm Financial has announced a sharemarket float to raise A$172 million ($153.3 million), with the company set to debut on the Australian Stock Exchange on 13 December. The float will value the company, which has completed more than ten acquisitions along Australia’s eastern seaboard this year, as high as A$500 million. Founded fifteen years ago by Emmanuel Cassimatis and his partner Julie Cassimatis, Storm currently has more than A$4 billion in asssets under management and has a close alliance with James Packer’s financial services venture Challenger. Around A$1 billion in Storm branded funds is managed by Challenger, and they have been prominent performers in a bullish market. According to research house Morningstar, the Storm badged/Challenger managed Australian Industrials Indexed Trust was among the top ten inflows for the year to the end of March 2007. Storm has over 3,000 clients and 14 offices along Australia’s east coast. The company said it has delivered a compound annual growth rate of 146 per cent since 2004. The float will value the combined wealth of the founders at more than A$300 million. In another Australian wealth management listing, Wilson Asset Management plans to raise A$25 million through listing a new investment company, also in December. Wilson has lodged a prospective for a venture called WAM Active, a fund management vehicle the company says will “take advantage of any corporate event” in a changing market. WAM would give “retail investors access to what institutions get,” according to the company’s chairman Geoffrey Wilson.