Challenger International is set to pursue further alliances with financial planning groups in an attempt to fill the hole left in its distribution ambitions by the break down of negotiations with broker Merrill Lynch.
Challenger managing director Bill Ireland has confirmed the group is in discussions with a number of dealer groups in order to forge new distribution alliances in the wake of the unsuccessful Merrill Lynch talks.
Challenger announced last week that it was in discussions with Merrill Lynch to acquire the group’s private client division, only to have negotiations collapse before a satisfactory conclusion could be reached.
The speculation at the time was that Challenger was willing to pay $40 million for the division, although the figure has not been confirmed.
Ireland was not willing to comment on the specific stumbling blocks in discussions with Merrill Lynch, but says negotiations were abandoned when a raft of differences could not be resolved in a satisfactory time period, and had no chance of being revisited.
“There was just a weight of issues that could have been resolved but were going to take a time frame that was unsatisfactory to both parties. There was not one issue that was insurmountable at the end, but [a solution] was just going to take too long for our time frame,” he says.
Ireland would also not be drawn on the dealer groups Challenger is looking to collaborate with, but says Challenger would possibly try to build stronger ties with planners it already has badging arrangements with, and that the search for distribution partners would be an ongoing process.
“There are lots of distribution avenues out there that are looking for inventive and successful products, and we will be looking at those channels to distribute our products through,” he says.
Challenger already owns one dealer group, Garrisons, which it purchased in 1999.
