Perpetual adviser business sale nears

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.”