FOFA crimping organic growth
The Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) changes had acted to close-down many organic growth opportunities and represented one of the reasons why Premium Wealth Management is favourably considering an acquisition by Australian Unity Personal Financial Services.
That is the assessment of Premium Wealth Management chief executive, Paul Harding-Davis who said the FOFA changes had acted as a catalyst for Premium to explore other options.
"FOFA effectively closed down many organic growth options, and it became clear we would need to either engage in mergers and acquisitions of our own, or invite a like-minded organisation to partner with us, to enable us to compete in a predominately vertically integrated world," he said.
Premium Wealth Management and Australian Unity announced on Friday that they had executed a non-binding indicative offer under which Australian Unity Personal Financial Services would acquire all the shares in Premium Wealth Management.
The announcement said that the board of Premium Wealth Management was recommending to shareholders that they consider the terms of acquisition with Australian Unity and that the Premium brand and strategy would continue to exist after the acquisition.
Commenting on the proposed transaction, Harding-Davis referred to the desirability of engaging with a company with a similar culture and philosophy.
"In the end, we think the option of engaging with a culturally aligned entity to acquire us makes sense and will, we believe, deliver the most benefits to each shareholder and practice," he said.
Australian Unity Personal Financial Services chief executive, Steve Davis made reference to the ability of the acquisition to deliver his organisation greater access to the accounting space.
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