CBA poised to roll out Avanteos after buy out
TheCommonwealth Bank group (CBA) has fully purchasedAvanteosand is slated to roll out the platform provider’s systems across its three dealer groups in a deal struck last week.
Avanteos chief executive Mark Papendieck says the deal results in the Commonwealth purchasing, for an undisclosed sum, the part of the company it did not already own throughColonial First State, which held just under 50 per cent of the group since April 2001.
The deal is likely to lead to the roll out of Avanteos’ services to the Commonwealth’s three dealer groups — Commonwealth Financial Planning,Commonwealth Financial SolutionsandFinancial Wisdom.
Papendieck says the decision to sell the remainder of the group to the CBA was due to expansion, and for the business to continue to grow, it needed the input of a large shareholder such as the CBA.
The Avanteos management team will not change but the board will be restructured with the CBA nominating six board members, two of them executive directors from Avanteos.
He says under this board, Avanteos management will continue to have responsibility for the operation of the business and at present he says there will be little change in the regular operations of the group.
CBA financial planning and advice services executive general manager Geoff Austin says the group will use Avanteos across its wealth management business and will run its wrap offering “as a natural complement to the simplicity of Colonial First State’s FirstChoice platform”.
The purchase of Avanteos rounds out the financial services holdings for CBA, which now boasts banking, funds management, platform, portfolio services and planning businesses.
Avanteos has already signed up a number of other groups includingDeakin Financial Services,Beacon Investment Management ServicesandLifespan,Austchoiceand Investment Diversity.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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