Australia's Perpetual rejects improved BPEA EQT, Regal bid

Having seen an offer of AUD 30.00 per share turned down last week, the consortium revised its bid upwards to AUD 33.00 per share, putting an approximately AUD 1.9bn (USD 1.2bn) valuation on the company. The Perpetual board maintained that it wasn't in the best interests of shareholders, noting concerns around valuation, high conditionality, and execution risks, according to a filing.

Regal's stock ended November 10 up 14.82% at AUD 33.40, which equates to a USD 1.65bn market capitalisation.

Making their initial bid earlier this month, BPEA EQT-Regal argued that they were offering a superior outcome to Perpetual's planned AUD 2.5bn acquisition of rival asset manager Pendal Group. Perpetual has asked for the process – a scheme of arrangement subject to an impending court hearing – to be paused while its own future is resolved.

BPEA EQT and Regal are working together on the bid, but if successful, they plan on splitting up the assets. Regal will take the asset management business – combining it with its own operation to create a platform with more than AUD 90bn in assets under management (AUM) – leaving BPEA EQT with the corporate trust and private client businesses.

Perpetual was founded in 1886 as a trust company and, from the 1980s, expanded into fund management, serving as an external manager for superannuation funds, providing financial advice, and offering corporate trustee and securitisation services. It also grew beyond Australia.

As of June 2022, the international and Australia asset management operations had AUM of AUD 69.1bn and AUD 21.3bn. The financial advisory business had AUD 17.4bn in funds under advice and the corporate trustee business had AUD 1.09trn in funds under administration.

Revenue for the year came to AUD 748.2bn, up from AUD 650.2bn for the 12 months ended June 2021. Underlying EBITDA rose from AUD 214m to AUD 248.5m, while net profit increased from AUD 72.9m to AUD 101.2m. Asset management – international and domestic – accounted for 50.5% of revenue, with financial advisory and corporate trustee contributing 27.5% and 20.6%, respectively.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Australasia
• Financials
• Buyouts
• Australia
• Financial Services
• BPEA EQT