Royal & SunAlliance, through a roundabout way, taken a significant step in New Zealand to fulfilling its strategic plan to provide customers with a total financial service.
Royal & SunAlliance has, through a roundabout way, taken a significant step in New Zealand to fulfilling its strategic plan to provide customers with a total financial service.
Its sister company in Australia has conditionally acquired Tyndall Australia, which is the parent company for New Zealand Guardian Trust.
The deal, once completed, means that Royal & SunAlliance adds a number of missing items to its suite of products in New Zealand.
Notably it gains some excellent managed funds, plus trustee services. Also, through the trustee structure it becomes one of a limited number of companies which can offer income based-group investment funds.
This acquisition, along with Guardian Assurance and Norwich Union's life and managed funds business in the past two years, goes along way towards strengthening Royal's weakness in the managed funds area. These news businesses have added a broad range of unit trusts (which were missing) to Royal's line-up, plus some high-calibre investment management personal have been acquired.
"The addition will complement our existing portfolio of products and services and will, in time, enhance the range of products we offer all our customers," Royal & SunAlliance chief executive Alan Bradley says of the Guardian Trust.
The only part missing from Royal's line-up now is banking services and they are likely to be provided in the not-too-distant future through a strategic alliance.
Royal & SunAlliance's willingness to form strategic alliances has been shown in the past through ventures such as Fusion Insurance, a joint effort between Royal, Southern Cross and GMV Associates to offer Workers' Compensation insurance.
While banking services are missing Royal has picked up, through the two Guardian purchases, mortgage lending business.
Bradley says although Royal & SunAlliance Australia has bought Tyndall, he will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the Guardian Trust business.
He says it has not yet been decided who will actually own Guardian Trust.
Acquiring Guardian Trust increases Royal's funds under management by 200 per cent to $6.6 billion. Guardian Trust acts as corporate trustee for a further $13 billion.
Royal & SunAlliance has, through a roundabout way, taken a significant step in New Zealand to fulfilling its strategic plan to provide customers with a total financial service.