NZFSG-Kepa finalise merger

The two groups sought approval from the Overseas Investment Office and NZ Commerce Commission for their tie-up.

The NZ Commerce Commission did not give formal approval for the acquisition of Kepa. Rather, NZFSG informally notified the Commission of the transaction, and the Commission indicated that they did not intend to consider the acquisition further at this time,” NZFSG chief executive Brendon Smith said.

“All of our Kepa staff have accepted positions with NZFSG and started with the new group on November 2. I will continue to run Kepa as CEO while we merge the two companies over the coming months with additional responsibility now as head of strategy for the wider NZFSG Group.”

Neal added: “Lee Rudolph, who established and grew Kepa General from scratch has successfully acquired the rights to the Kepa General client base and will continue to run that business.”

The merger combines Kepa’s network of 400 advisers with the 1,200 plus network of NZFSG and Loan Market.

NZFSG said Kepa’s general insurance arm will remain with Kepa’s holding company Kepa Financial Services (KFS).

Comments from our readers

On 18 November 2020 at 3:37 pm valkyrie6 said:

oh great , one FAP license owned by overseas real-estate agents for 1600 advisers ,what is the point of licensing FMA? what a joke.

On 19 November 2020 at 8:58 am Amused said:

Clearly the Commerce Commission doesn’t have a clue. Well no real surprises there. After all if they can let the likes of Valocity & CoreLogic take a monopoly over registered valuations removing all consumer choice why wouldn't they also allow a financial services company owned by real estate agents overseas to do the same thing. Pretty soon we are going to see the majority of NZ consumers getting screwed royally when they come to purchase a property and organise their mortgage finance because their mortgage adviser and the land agent they are dealing with both work for the same company. No potential at all for a conflict of interest to occurring there…..Nice one Commerce Commission!

And as for the FMA as valkyrie6 notes correctly what was the point of licensing if we are going to let one FAP now have 1600 odd advisers and be held responsible for the advice they all give. Licensing was supposed to be about holding the individual adviser to account for the advice that he or she gives to their customer. A group/aggregator does not give advice to an adviser’s customer nor do they own that customer.

NZFSG-Kepa finalise merger

[UPDATED] NZFSG's merger with Kepa has received regulatory approval and closed on October 30 as planned, according to the group's chief executive Brendon Neal. CORRECTED STATEMENT FROM COMMERCE COOMMISSION.

Wednesday, November 18th 2020, 5:04AM 2 Comments

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