Ipac sells stake in Kiwi fund manager
IPAC Securities has sold its 50 per cent share of New Zealand Funds Management (NZFM) following a management buyout.
IPAC Securities has sold its 50 per cent share of New Zealand Funds Management (NZFM) following a management buyout.
IPAC executive chairman, Arun Abey, says the sale was an amicable deal with NZFM principals, Gerald Siddall and Russell Tills, purchasing the IPAC holding.
IPAC’s alliance with NZFM in 1988 was the company’s first joint venture outside of Australia but Abey says the two firms have followed different paths.
“Both parties agreed that this was the right time for IPAC to exit. New Zealand Funds Management is well established as a provider of unit trust products and back-office administration,” Abey says.
“IPAC is principally a financial planning firm and NZFM didn’t fit with our set of skills.”
Abey says there is still plenty of growth potential for NZFM but its future direction would be better handled with the skills developed within the New Zealand com-pany.
He says IPAC has no plans to develop a financial planning network in New Zea-land as that would “conflict with alliances New Zealand Funds Management has with planners”.
The sale also has implications for IPAC Research in New Zealand, which Abey says will be reviewed in the near future.
“We need to develop a strategy for IPAC Research in New and decide what its function is.”
IPAC plan to use the proceeds of the New Zealand sale to further its operations in South Africa, Taiwan and Ireland.
“IPAC is also investigating prospective operations in other parts of Europe and in Japan,” Abey says.
“It’s encouraging to see that the IPAC model, based on universal principles, is a robust one that is working in different countries.”
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