Challenger details APFS shareholder offer
By Craig Phillips
ChallengerFinancial ServicesGroup announced specific details of its proposed merger with Associated Planners Financial Services (APFS) last week, following the Federal Court convening a series of shareholder scheme meetings ahead of a scheduled final court hearing on August 6.
Each shareholder will be offered 5.69 Challenger shares for every APFS share, with an independent report by APFS-appointed PKF Corporate Advisers pricing the dealer group at between $76 million and $84 million, and thereby concluding the Challenger offer to be fair and reasonable and in the best interest of the shareholders.
APFS’ three distinct classes of shareholders will gather for a general meeting regarding the merger followed by a formal vote at separate ordinary and class A and Z meetings scheduled for July 30. The deal, if approved, will be effective from 2pm on August 13.
Challenger chief executive officer Chris Cuffe, who will step down to take on the management of the group’s wealth management division as of August 2, anticipates significant synergy benefits from merging APFS with Challenger-owned, medium-sized dealer firm Garrisons.
In light of the deal proposal, including a ‘Charter of Independence’, Cuffe dismisses suggestions dealer groups are not a significant source of profit generation in their own right.
“Larger dealer groups in the main are not businesses that you can find public information on, they’re the groups owned by banks. The only large public dealer group you can get any information on is Count and that performs extremely well,” Cuffe says.
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