Iress will be spending much of 2021 bedding down its acquisition of OneVue but the company has signalled that it has funds on hand to undertake further mergers or acquisitions.
In a market briefing accompanying the release of its full-year results, Iress chief financial officer, John Harris pointed to the “upsized” $175 million it had raised as part of its acquisition of OneVue and said this higher figure had been pursued as part of an expectation that “the volatile economic environment would flush out further M&A opportunities”.
“This additional M&A capacity has not yet been deployed but we continue to have a keen eye for opportunities to leverage the strength of our balance sheet, our software capability and our global team for the benefit of shareholders,” he said.
The Iress update made clear that its dominant position in the Australian financial advice market had been a factor with growth in Australian advice and superannuation driving revenue up 8%.
“Growth in this segment reflects the underlying strength of our position in the financial advice market as we help the industry adapt and transition following the Hayne Royal Commission” he said.
“As we have said previously, we see long term opportunity for software in the Australian market, albeit with some heightened risk of half on half volatility in the short term.”
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