If Perpetual chairman Tony D’Aloisio and chief executive Rob Adams hoped to project an image of being in control of the company’s fate by announcing a strategic review of the business on Wednesday morning, they failed miserably.

The announcement just a few hours later from Washington H. Soul Pattinson that it had lobbed a $3 billion bid for Perpetual made it look like the timing announcement of the strategic review had been prompted not by the board’s sudden brainwave, but by an approach from a third party.