Tower spin-off clears final hurdle

insurance life insurance

4 February 2005
| By Craig Phillips |

NZ-based life insurance and investment management firm Tower Group has been given the all-clear to proceed with the spin-off of its Australian Wealth Management (AWM) business following final sign-off in the High Court of New Zealand yesterday.

The green light for the deal reinforces the backing the firm's shareholders gave the initiative on January 25 and allows Tower to now proceed with a scheduled separate listing of AWM on the Australian Stock Exchange on February 14.

Under the proposal, Tower will divest its interest in AWM in exchange for approximately 120 million AWM shares, priced at $1, and a cash payment of $130 million.

The AWM shares will be transferred to existing Tower shareholders and, in consideration, an approximately equivalent value of Tower shares held by the group's existing shareholders will be bought back by Tower and cancelled.

The calculation value will be based on the share price as at the close of business on February 11.

Earlier this week the group announced its managing director, Keith Taylor, would relinquish his role as head of the trans-Tasman company with Tower Australia chief, Jim Minto, to fill the position at the end of the month.

The group is drawing to an close a two year recovery phase that has seen it reverse its not-too-distant woes and will now turn its attention to growing its business, according to recent statements made by group chairman Olaf O’Duill.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

 

Recommended for you

 

MARKET INSIGHTS

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

Time to Go

I really can't see how getting rid of the safeguards with no other changes achieves anything at all. We're still the ea...

1 day 17 hours ago
Rob

Nowhere else in the world do innocent bystanders have to pay for the losses incurred to investors due to failed business...

1 day 20 hours ago
Time to Go

Yet everything states profitability is much higher in a larger practice. As a smaller planning practice it is a hard sl...

3 days 13 hours ago

AustralianSuper and Australian Retirement Trust have posted the financial results for the 2022–23 financial year for their combined 5.3 million members....

10 months 1 week ago

A $34 billion fund has come out on top with a 13.3 per cent return in the last 12 months, beating out mega funds like Australian Retirement Trust and Aware Super. ...

9 months 4 weeks ago

The verdict in the class action case against AMP Financial Planning has been delivered in the Federal Court by Justice Moshinsky....

10 months 1 week ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND