Australian stockbroking and wealth management outfit, Shaw and Partners, has taken a 75 per cent stake in Devon Funds parent company, Investment Services Group (ISG) in a conclusion to a long-running sales process.
Under a deal confirmed tonight, Shaws – a subsidiary of Swiss private bank, EFG International – will form a partnership with ISG effective July 1.
According to the Australian Financial Review, Shaws paid $67.5 million for the three-quarter piece of ISG, the Paul Glass-founded investment and distribution roll-up comprising Devon, Clarity Funds, JMI Wealth, Select Wealth and Tahito Fund.
Glass said Shaws has made a long-term investment in ISG which is “perfectly aligned with our approach to client partnerships”.
“We were also attracted to EFG International’s global expertise in wealth and investment management, strong financial position and its solid track record of growth,” he said.
Following the ownership change, subject to regulatory approval, the ISG advisory brand, JMI Wealth, will be renamed as Shaw and Partners NZ.
ISG has been on the block for almost a year with a number of local and Australian buyers touted as buyers at one point or another.
Glass said last July that “scale is increasingly crucial for competitiveness and long-term success” in the NZ funds management business.
“Accordingly, we’ve decided that now is the right time to appoint an external advisor (Murray & Co) to assist us with a strategic review of our business and the NZ wealth industry,” he said at the time.
“The range of strategic possibilities includes exploring options to help us attain scale under our existing framework, as well as how we could potentially leverage third-party investment or relationships to help accelerate this growth.”
Shaws has A$35 billion under management with ISG to add a further NZ$7 billion to the pot.
Earl Evans, Shaws chief, said the deal brings “together two like-minded firms with a focus on doing the right thing by clients and empowering our people to do their best work”.
“Together we have a great opportunity to grow, and build something even more extraordinary in NZ.”
The arrangement would be “business as usual” for the underlying ISG companies, bar the name change to JMI, the release says.