Perpetual granted court approval for Trust take-over



Perpetual's take over bid for The Trust Company will become effective from 4 December after the NSW Supreme Court approved the arrangement under which Perpetual will acquire all the shares in Trust.
According to documents lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) by Perpetual and Trust, tomorrow will also be the last day Trust shares will be traded on the ASX before the issuance of Perpetual shares to Trust shareholders on 18 December.
The court ruling follows the granting of shareholder approval at a general meeting held last week in which more than 83 per cent of shareholders voted in favour of the scheme of arrangement which would result in the merger of the two groups.
The ruling also ends the ongoing take-over tussle that began in May between Perpetual and Equity Trustees. It was characterised by counter-offers, rebuttals of the value of the respective offers and surprise bid by IOOF for Trust, which was beaten by a revised Perpetual offer.
Perpetual chief executive officer and managing director Geoff Lloyd said the merged entity would deliver greater scale across Perpetual's business units and that plans were well underway for integrating Trust into Perpetual.
As part of these moves Lloyd and Perpetual chief financial officer Gillian Larkins will join the board of Trust.
Recommended for you
Digital advice tools are on the rise, but licensees will need to ensure they still meet adviser obligations or potentially risk a class action if clients lose money from a rogue algorithm.
Shaw and Partners has merged with Sydney wealth manager Kennedy Partners Wealth, while Ord Minnett has hired a private wealth adviser from Morgan Stanley.
Australian investors are more confident than their APAC peers in reaching their financial goals and are targeting annual gains of more than 10 per cent, according to Fidelity International.
Zenith Investment Partners has lost its head of portfolio solutions Steven Tang after 17 years with the firm, the latest in a series of senior exits from the research house.