Suitors for Westpac’s wealth management unit will be putting the finishing touches on their offers for the business, with final bids due on Monday.
Believed to be putting in a binding bid by Monday August 22 is Colonial First State, which is jointly owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and CBA.
The question is whether private equity firms emerge with a final offer and should AMP stump up with a bid.
Many say AMP is out of the race.
In the first round, CFS was thought to have been the only group to have put forward a conforming bid, but that does not mean others came up with nonconforming offers.
Private equity firm names that have been discussed as being around the situation are Bain Capital, JC Flowers and Apollo Global Management, which is a major shareholder in Challenger.
The timeline for the sale process was extended, as bidders focused in on the wealth management unit’s performance up until the end of the June 30 financial year.
It is expected that the unit will sell for at least $700m.
Banks have been retreating from non-core operations to focus on mortgages and business banking.
Advising on the sale of Westpac’s wealth management unit, which includes its Panorama platform, is investment bank Morgan Stanley.
Already, Westpac has offloaded the superannuation operations in its wealth management unit to Mercer Australia for $225m.
Earlier, Westpac had about $140.2bn of funds on its platforms, including $105bn on its Panorama platform at March.
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