Tribeca turns away from compliance, conferences

TribecaLearning will exit its compliance business and scale back its events business, as it braces for a disappointing finish to 2004-05.

While its operating earnings are forecast to be between $3.3 million and $3.7 million by June 30 — a 30 per cent increase over the previous corresponding period — the growth is related to education-related acquisitions and masks a decline in the events and compliance businesses.

The compliance business, which conducted adviser auditing and compliance consulting, will be abandoned altogether in a shift to focus on education and professional development. In an Australian Stock Exchange announcement, Tribeca said it was in discussions to divest the business, which represented about 5 per cent of its revenue.

Tribeca chief executive Adam Davis was hopeful that all 15 employees of the unit could be retained in a transfer to another company.

Tribeca’s events business will do about half the number of conferences, but across a wider number of market segments in the 2006 financial year, Davis added.

“Last year we ran about 20 conferences in the core financial planning space, this year we’ll do 12. Producing larger events with longer lead times and stronger sponsorship support… will improve the business’ operating performance,” he said.

The saviour for Tribeca was additional income related to this year’s acquisition of three education providers: Webb Martin, a provider of tax training workshops; Monroe Topple and Associates, a provider of preparatory courses for the Institute of Chartered Accountants’ CA designation; and the Strategist Group, a provider of self-managed super fund training.