Mawson keen on merger

Independently owned dealer group Mawson Securities Group is poised to merge with an as yet undisclosed dealer group of a slightly smaller size and similar culture.

The proposed merger appears to be emerging as the preferred option for key Mawson stakeholders over a current acquisition bid by what is understood to be ING dealer group Millennium3 Financial Services.

Mawson chief executive Peter Johnson would not divulge the name of either group, but confirmed the simultaneous discussions with the two groups were occurring.

Johnson told Money Management he could “neither confirm nor deny” Millennium3 Financial Services as the group seeking to acquire Mawson, due to “confidentiality agreements”.

He confirmed, however, that “an institution has been doing due diligence on Mawson for the past couple of months”, with a view to an acquisition.

At the same time, he said, Mawson is “doing due diligence on a national dealer group of a similar size and culture as ourselves” with a view to a merger.

In addition, the Mawson board has rejected an acquisition bid by Tower, which already owns 16 per cent of the dealer group.

“I can tell you that our board has rejected a proposal by Tower, following due diligence on Mawson, as not being to the advantage of stakeholders.”

The Mawson board has considered “about five proposals in all” to either acquire or merge with Mawson, which has 114 authorised representatives nation-wide, Johnson said.

“We have broken down the proposals into the two we think are the most worthwhile. One of these is the unnamed organisation looking to buy and the other one the organisation looking to merge.”

Johnson said he was not “in a position at this stage to say exactly which organisation is our preferred option, because we are not in possession yet of all the facts”.

However, “you could say we are having very serious merger talks with another slightly smaller dealer group with a similar culture to ours, and there could well be an announcement shortly”.