Perpetual Private a leaner business

Perpetual Private has undergone a restructure which would position it well for the 2014 financial year and the return to full advice and equities, according to Perpetual managing director and chief executive officer, Geoff Lloyd.

Lloyd told Money Management Perpetual Private had lost 80 staff in the last year, with 50 more redundancies in teams that service the division, due to the introduction of a new platform.

"We've put a new wrap platform in place, a Super Wrap platform and a master fund platform; it covers our trustee services for our fiduciary clients and that's provided by Macquarie Bank," he said.

Notwithstanding significant change, the group's advice business had maintained strong client advocacy, Lloyd added.

Perpetual yesterday reported a 127 per cent increase in net profits to $61 million, which reflected the benefits from the first year of realised cost savings under its ‘Transformation 2015' program and improving market conditions.

Perpetual Private recorded a net profit of $9.2 million, 11 per cent higher than in financial year 2012.

"Perpetual Private is now a right-sized business, it's got a quality team and is focused on the right client segments for growth — true high net worth clients," he said.

"As term deposit rates become lower over time, this business is very well positioned in 2014 to capture that movement from cash back into full advice and equities."