By Craig Phillips
Melbourne-based dealer groupQuadrant Securitiesis set to buy the 50 per cent stake held in it byChallenger Financial Services Group(CFSG), through dealer groupGarrisons Financial Planning, following a move by the firm’s five founding principals to buy out the holding.
AsMoney Managementrevealed back in October, Quadrant was reviewing the stake held in it by CFSG and re-assessing $300 million of assets channelled into the latter’s Synergy master trust, primarily in response to the restructure of CFSG and its subsidiary companies.
According to Quadrant director John McCormack, the deal is part of a strategic plan to position the firm as a purely independent dealer group.
“The purchase is to clearly establish Quadrant’s independence as a financial services licence holder, and facilitate the expansion and development plans the group has to position itself as a premier boutique financial planning group,” McCormack says.
The instigation of the review was also partly due to changes within CFSG, in particular those impacting on both Challenger-owned Garrisons, which has held a 50 per cent stake in Quadrant for five years, and Synergy, which split from Garrisons back in May and has $300 million of Quadrant’s First Quest platform assets.
“There have been so many changes over the past two years as a result of Challenger’s takeover of Garrisons, that we believe their priorities may have changed, and it is therefore appropriate for us to review whether they are now the best fit,” McCormack said at the commencement of the review last year.
The deal results in the five founding principals holding all equity in Quadrant, which has a presence in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and is seeking to expand its operations into other states and territories.
