Acquisitions play large part in strong fund manager results
Acquisitions have driven the results of both Perpetual and Australian Unity with the two groups reporting strong increases in profit off the back of purchases made during the past financial year.
Last week Perpetual Limited announced a 50 per cent increase in net profit after tax of $122.5 million with Perpetual chief executive, Geoff Lloyd stating the increase was a result of the completion of the company's Transformation 2015 strategy and the successful integration of The Trust Company.
Perpetual Private represented a stand-out performer within the wider group with profit before tax up 74 per cent to $37.5 million, driven by the addition of The Trust Company business resulting in growth in new high net worth clients, net flows, equity market gains and higher non-market related business activity.
Australian Unity posted a 22.4 per cent increase in profit before tax to $42.9 million on the back of a 7.5 per cent increase in revenues to $1.4 billion and also pointed to financial planning and estate planning acquisitions over the past 18 months as sources of growth.
Australian Unity stated that its Personal Financial Services business increased earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation by 70 per cent to $3.9 million while funds under advice increased 70.2 per cent to $5.9 billion.
Australian Unity group managing director, Rohan Mead pointed to the acquisitions of Premium Wealth Management, Waratah Insurance Brokers, and Flinders Australia as having bolstered the business in a number of strategic operational areas.
Fiducian Group also reported an increased in underlying net profit after tax of 28 per cent to $5.75 million and an increase in funds under advice within its planning business of $0.4 million to $1.71 billion.
Fiducian managing director Indy Singh said the strong result came from across the business with the acquisition of two financial planning client bases with around $145 million under advice and the strong performance of the group's specialist funds driving the strong results.
Recommended for you
In the latest Meet the Manager profile, Money Management speaks with Michael Skinner, founder and managing director at Blackwattle Investment Partners.
Perpetual has seen AUM rise 6 per cent in the last quarter but the departure of a longstanding JOHCM fund manager led to outflows of $2.2 billion from his strategy.
Global fixed income fund Bentham Global Opportunities has been added to several major platforms, enabling it to be accessed more easily by financial advisers.
Following yesterday’s news about First Sentier Investors closing four investment teams, a second global asset manager has announced it is closing its only dedicated Australian fund.
