IOOF has exited the NZ market in a deal that will see UK pension transfer firm, Britannia Financial Services, pick up the scraps.
In an ASX release issued last night, IOOF said it would sell “all client rights” relating to the $550 million plus Integral Master Trust [IMT] to Britannia.
“As part of the transaction, IOOF NZ has retired as Manager of the IMT,” the statement says.
According to the release, the IMT – which principally managed the assets on behalf of Britannia – reported $553 million in funds under management and over 5,000 underlying clients.
Renato Mota, IOOF chief executive, said in the release: “The divestment of IOOF’s business interests in New Zealand reinforces our focus of simplifying the business around our advice-led strategy and opportunities.”
Mota said the costs of winding down the NZ operations were “negligible”.
Newly-published Britannia compliance documents reveal the UK pension specialist firm continues to outsource investment management to the IOOF Quantplus fund. However, Britannia replaces IOOF as the licensed managed investment scheme manager.
Britannia has appointed MMC for administration, Appello as registrar and Public Trust as supervisor.
IOOF, headed in NZ by John Atkinson, also owned a handful of financial advisory firms that used to trade under the Plan B brand. Atkinson retired as IOOF NZ director on April 14.
For the 12 months to June 30 last year, IOOF NZ recorded a net profit of just over $663,000 – down from $900,000 plus in the previous annual period.
In total, IOOF garnered revenue of $4.8 million last year, of which just $475,000 came via funds under advice fees with the remainder sourced from managing the IMT funds.