Guardian Trust, one of the big three NZ licensed supervisors, has officially moved to foreign ownership after regulators approved its sale to an Asian conglomerate in October.
The Hong Kong-based Tricor bought the Guardian Trust business (including subsidiary firm Covenant Trust) in July this year from the Andrew Barnes-controlled Complectus, pending sign-off from the Overseas Investment Office (OIO).
In a decision handed down mid-October, the OIO cleared Trivium Madison Pacific Investment (a Tricor subsidiary) to buy Guardian, noting the regulator was satisfied “that the individuals who will control the investment have the relevant business experience and acumen and are of good character”.
“[Trivium] has also demonstrated financial commitment to the investment,” the OIO decision says. “The Minister of Finance has determined that the investment is not contrary to New Zealand’s national interest.”
Established in NZ over 125 years ago, Guardian collectively oversees more than $250 billion of NZ-sourced funds including as supervisor of nine KiwiSaver schemes.
In a release last week, Tricor chief, Lennard Yong, said the purchase of Guardian and Covenant would bolster its “global corporate trust practice with market-leading and differentiated trust solutions in New Zealand and across Australasia and Asia-Pacific”.
“Our goal is to support the [Guardian] management team led by Harry Koprivcic and to grow these businesses within their respective markets and to add to our regional corporate trust platform in Asia Pacific,” Yong said.
The sale to Tricor follows several attempts by Barnes to offload Complectus assets via listing or trade sale since he launched the trustee company roll-up business in 2013. Complectus, majority owned by the Barnes Bath Street Capital vehicle, was looking to list the firm in 2015 before embarking on a trade-sale to Australian firm Sargon that collapsed in 2017 amid a bitter legal dispute.
At the time, Sargon – which itself fell apart in 2020 – reportedly offered over A$200 million for all of Complectus including its private client Perpetual Guardian arm: Perpetual was not part of the Tricor deal.
Post the Sargon deal implosion, NZ private equity firm Direct Capital bought half of Complectus via a convertible loan agreement struck in August 2017.
“Guardian Trust remains focused on its supervisory role in New Zealand,” Koprivcic said. “It will benefit from Tricor’s international footprint and access to global best practice solutions and technology. Tricor’s presence in other jurisdictions will advantage Guardian Trust, whose services will be valuable to clients looking to invest in New Zealand. Within the wholesale side of the business, its securitisation and facility agency services are cross-border.”
Tricor is a Hong Kong-based entity but the group is ultimately owned by UK private equity firm, Permira, which boasts €44 billion (about NZ$745 billion) under management. Permira paid US$835 million to buy Tricor in 2016, completing the deal the following year.
Meanwhile, Guardian has reclaimed Marisa Tucker from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) to replace long-time head of its Wellington office, John Sewell.
Tucker, who joined the FMA as supervision senior adviser in May this year from the Todd Corporation, took over from Sewell this month.
Prior to Todd Corp she spent almost six years as a relationship manager for Guardian in Wellington.
Sewell ends a 27-year stint with Guardian in a career that covered roles including “company secretarial, accounting, client servicing, lending, risk management, compliance, administration and business development”, according to the group’s website.
“John Sewell has been an important part of the Guardian Trust business for the past two decades and a succession plan commenced some time ago,” Koprivcic said. “As John enters retirement, he will support Marisa as she returns to the company to assume leadership of the Wellington team.”