Wealth manager Mason Stevens is understood to have caught the eye of an offshore suitor, which may put its plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange off the agenda.
While the identity of the interested party is unknown, sources expect it would likely be an offshore group already operating in the industry.
Mason Stevens was one of the initial public offering candidates heading to market last year through Barrenjoey and Morgans, but it pulled the deal when equity investors would not meet its price expectations. At that time it was being valued at between $200m and $500m.
Mason Stevens is compared to fund administration businesses such as HUB24 or Netwealth that trade at as much as 20 times their earnings. It offers investment administration and managed account solutions across multi-assets and multi-currencies, and such groups are successful due to their technology enabling a lower cost base.
The group, which has more than 70 staff working nationally, boasts of superior platform technology for financial advisers, offering global investments, investment solutions and insight into investment options.
Former Iress chief executive Andrew Walsh is chairman and former UBS and Westpac executive Tim Yule is chief executive. Mr Yule joined the company in 2015 and took on the top job in 2022.
Mason Stevens is owned by its staff and clients, with about 100 individual shareholders.
Founders hold the largest interests. It is understood that the group is profitable, and part of the logic for a listing was accessing more capital as it looked to fund expansion. Earlier, Australian peers shied away from an acquisition because the asking price was too high. One factor that could lead Mason Stevens to lean more towards a sale than a float is that the markets still seem to be challenging for smaller groups looking to list.
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