LISTED financial services groupHartleys Limitedwill close its wealth management division, sell its margin lending book and transfer selected Hartley advisers and clients to theMacquarie Financial Services Group.
The deal with Macquarie is the result of a decision by the WA-based firm to close its offices in the eastern states and follows the group’s previous decision to ‘structurally separate’ its wealth management division from its JDV operations.
Macquarie and Hartleys have an existing business relationship, with the former a client of the JDV business and Hartleys a large scale user of the Macquarie Cash Management Trust.
Macquarie Financial Services division director Peter Coleman says there is an existing overlap between the advisers in the two groups, with a number using the same platforms. As such, Coleman predicts that clients of Hartleys will not be inconvenienced during the transition.
“We have undertaken to provide our new Hartleys clients with continuity of service, from the advisers they know and trust,” Coleman says.
Hartleys’ interim chief executive Tony Howarth says the decision to close the wealth management business will result in a greater focus on the JDV operations of the business.
Hartleys’ wealth management business has not performed well for the group, recording an operating loss for the half year ending December 2002 of $14 million on revenues of $20.6 million. Yet in the same period last year the group recorded an operating loss of only $3.3 million and revenues of $22.3 million.
The 2002 loss comprised a number of one-off charges totalling $9 million that came about due to the write-down of assets ($2.3 million) and goodwill ($2 million) in the wealth management business and the release of surplus property ($4.7 million).
The JDV operations of the business fared better with an operating profit for the half year of $656,000 on revenues of $15 million, with the profit the result of merging two divisions — JDV Technology and JDV Outsourcing.
