Perpetual adviser business sale nears

The sale of Perpetual’s financial advisory business appears to be imminent, with two companies said to be still in the running.

Tuesday, October 2nd 2012, 7:07AM

by Niko Kloeten

Perpetual recently announced the sale of its corporate trustee business, which made up about 20% of the company’s revenue, in a management buy-out.

Perpetual’s owner, NZX-listed financial firm Pyne Gould Corporation, is looking to sell the rest of Perpetual either as one unit or in chunks. In recent years the group has been building up its advisory business, recruiting advisers and acquiring businesses. It has been considered as a new version of the Spicers advisers group, partly due to the people involved. PGC's majority shareholder George Kerr was instrumental in building Spicers and selling it to AXA. His mate Patrick Middleton ran Spicers and is now the chief executive of Perpetual's advisory business and Perpetual has recruited former Spicers people including Aaron Hing and marketing manager Tammy Hendricks.

A source with knowledge of the sale process, who didn’t want to be named due to confidentiality, said the sale of Perpetual’s advisory business was “pretty close” and the field of potential buyers had been narrowed down to two major contenders.

“Two people have done quite a lot of due diligence; one larger and one smaller. One is a South Island name and the other is a New Zealand corporate name.”

The source wouldn’t name the two firms but said potential buyers would likely need “existing infrastructure” in the financial adviser space.

Although Perpetual’s managed funds and advisory businesses could theoretically be sold separately, there was a large amount of cross-over between them, the source said.

“They [Perpetual’s managed funds] are predominantly owned by its client base.”

Market speculation has named SBS Bank as one of those who could be interested in buying Perpetual’s advisory book.

SBS offers financial advice and fund management services through its subsidiary Funds Administration New Zealand (FANZ), which has more than $300 million under management and seven mostly South Island-based authorised financial advisers (AFAs).

FANZ executive director Graham Duston said, “We don’t comment on market rumours. I’m not in a position to comment and I’d prefer to leave it at that.”

A spokesman for Perpetual said the company couldn’t comment until a market announcement had been made.

Niko Kloeten can be contacted at niko@goodreturns.co.nz

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