Barnes and Milford create new trustee company

Two former trusteee companies (they have a new name now) have come together in a new company and Milford Asset Management takes an ownership stake in the business.

Monday, April 7th 2014, 1:31PM

NZ Guardian Trust and Perpetual Trust are being bought by a new company Complectus which has Milford Asset Management as a shareholder. The other shareholder is Bath Street Capital which is controlled by Andrew Barnes and previously fully owned Perpetual Trust New Zealand.

Milford’s stake in Complectus is thorugh its Active Growth Wholesale Fund.

Barnes most recently came to prominence in New Zealand after buying Perpetual Trust for $12.3 million from George Kerr’s company Pyne Gould. Before that he established Australian Wealth Management, a spin off from TOWER Australia.

This interconnection between players also sees former TOWER chief executive Rob Flannagan taking on the chairmanship at Complectus. Flannagan was seen as a GPG-appointment at TOWER. Many years ago the predecessor to GPG, Brierley Investments, owned NZ Guardian Trust.

NZGT itself has been the subject of four owners in as many years. In its most recent ownership changes Suncorp acquired the business then sold it for A$42 million to ASX-listed Trust Company. Last year there was an intense battle for ownership of The Trust Company which was finally acquired by another ASX-listed business Perpetual Limited (which is not at all related to Perpetual NZ).

Now Perpetual Limited has sold NZGT to Complectus for $68.5 million which was settled in cash.

Flannagan says by coming together both companies will be in a strong position to continue to provide excellent service to clients, while investing in market leading solutions for both corporate and private clients.

He says that it would be business as usual for corporate clients of NZ Guardian Trust where the business is the market leader in New Zealand.

Barnes says “we see strong benefits in integrating the two businesses, and we will be injecting new thinking and ideas into our services for our clients.”

While these business previously were known as Trustee companies that name is no longer used under the Financial Markets Conduct Act. There new name is Statutory Supervisers. Financial Markets Authority Head of Strategy, Innovation and Engagement Sue Brown recently said she was "delighted" that the term trustee has been replaced ast it was a "false indicator" of what the companies did. She says they are front line supervisors.