Merger rumours circulate

Merger rumours are flying about the country’s dealer groups.

Monday, March 3rd 2014, 6:00AM

Industry sources say there is talk of a possible merger between TNP and Ginger Group. Newpark may possibly be involved in discussions as well.

TNP chief executive Jeff Page said he was aware of the rumours circulating in the market but he didn’t want to “fuel the fire” by commenting.

But Page said TNP was looking to grow and was open to approaches from other groups and companies.

“For the last seven years we’ve always been open to discussions with other industry groups, insurance groups and all sorts of stuff. The second day after I set this business up in 2007 we were being approached by different groups about the possibility of doing things together.”

Page said TNP was in a strong financial health with good membership growth, but some other groups weren’t in such a good position.

“What we are finding more than anything else is there’s a couple of dealer groups and adviser practices that are really struggling to provide value-added services to their clients.”

Darren Gannon, managing director of Newpark Financial Services, said the group wasn’t looking at merging with any of the other dealer groups.

“Both Newpark, Newpark homeloans and Newpark general are all experiencing fast growth and we see no value in merging or need to merge our business with any of the current dealer groups in the market.”

He said the recent Auckland development day today was attended by 185 advisers, while other events have also been well attended.

“From our point of view we are very happy and excited about the space we are in and our very motivated team are doing an amazing job helping members.”

Nicola Smee, of the Ginger Group, said her organisation was always open to the idea of working with other groups that had the right fit of values.

“In the future, we wouldn’t rule it out but at this stage it’s just rumours.”

She said the country’s dealer groups had very good relationships and were not in competition with each other.

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