DKN counting on a good fit

Count Financial may have purchased a 5 per cent stake in DKN Financial Group, but that has not stopped DKN scoping out its own acquisition opportunities.

DKN chief executive Phil Butterworth has told Money Management that the financial services group is continuing to grow organically and is also looking to make an acquisition “that fits into our structure”.

He said that in searching for growth opportunities, DKN was not thinking in terms of a single acquisition.

Acknowledging Count’s purchase of a 5 per cent stake in DKN, Butterworth said it clearly signalled a reason for discussion between the two groups. But he added that the initiation of such a discussion would not necessarily mean that Count represented a good fit.

Butterworth’s comments come against the background of Count having competed against DKN in its 2007 acquisition of Lonsdale, and with DKN having emerged as the winner on the back of Lonsdale equity-hold sentiment.

“Lonsdale represents an important and successful part of the DKN Group, and we are conscious of that fact,” Butterworth said.

IOOF and Zurich currently own DKN, but it has been widely speculated that Zurich might ultimately look to sell down its 32 per cent holding (which remained from its sale of Lonsdale).

Commenting at the time of Count’s acquisition of its 5 per cent stake in DKN, Count executive chairman Barry Lambert said the shares had been purchased in the context of industry consolidation and Count’s affinity with Lonsdale, as both financial planning groups were accounting-based.

But the DKN chief executive said that while the consolidation of the financial planning industry made it imperative for groups such as DKN and Count to gain scale, culture and fit were important elements of such growth.

Butterworth added that just because Lonsdale and Count were both in the accounting space that did not mean they could be made to run together.