PIS sale clears final Aviva obstacle
The final hurdle confronting Aviva’s planned purchase of a 20 per cent stake in Professional Investment Services (PIS) has been cleared, with the UK insurance giant confirming it has completed its due diligence on Australia’s second largest dealer group.
“We have completed due diligence on time and are very satisfied with the process,” an Aviva spokesman told Money Management.
While the company has not confirmed the price tag, sources have told Money Management it will be in the order of $40 million, valuing the country’s second largest dealer group at $200 million.
Aviva already owns 6.5 per cent of PIS from a deal done many years ago when the dealer group was first formed.
The move on PIS by Aviva is seen as being a defensive play to protect the funds under administration in its Navigator platform.
PIS has about $1.5 billion of funds in Navigator. The platform has a total of about $11 billion of funds under administration.
As part of the deal Aviva will be given two places on the board of PIS’ holding company PIH.
“It is anticipated these positions will be filled by more senior members of our staff although no person has been allocated the responsibility yet,” the Aviva spokesman said.
The announcement of these new PIS directors is expected to be made when the deal is completed, which is predicted to be before June this year.
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