Jarden shares priced at $8 in latest auction round

New Zealand advisory firm Jarden launched into the Australian market in 2020 and is an adviser on high profile deals like Origin Energy. Picture: iStock.

Shares in Australia and New Zealand investment bank and wealth manager Jarden Group were valued at $8 each on Thursday when its latest internal auction unfolded.

The auctions happen throughout the year to enable shareholders – most of which are staff members – to take some money off the table or buy in further to the business.

It comes after the last auction in July, when shares were sold at $10 each.

An auction earlier in the year saw shares sold at $8.50 each.

There were participants who were excluded from the latest auction due to conflicts related to an internal transaction being worked on by the group.

The excluded participants would typically comprise about 80 per cent of the trading, so trading in the latest round was thin.

It comes as speculation continues surrounding the future of merger and acquisition activity related to Jarden’s wealth management division.

Jarden previously competed to buy Kiwi Wealth, which was sold to the TA Associates-backed Fisher Funds for $NZ310m.

It is understood that Jarden was planning to spin out its own wealth management unit into a separate vehicle, where FNZ would also be a minority shareholder of the business.

Jarden launched into the Australian market in 2020, poaching high profile former UBS bankers including Robbie Vanerzeil, who ran the Australian Jarden operations but has since left, Aidan Allen and Sarah Rennie, among others.

The launch to take on trans-Tasman rivals on the local investment banking scene was given the green light by Jarden’s board including chairman Bill Trotter and hedge fund operator and director David Copley.

However, Copley resigned as a Jarden director last year.

James Lee was Jarden’s chief executive at the time, but has since left the firm.

The latest value on the firm comes at a time when mergers and acquisitions volumes are down and equity capital markets volumes depressed amid a slowing economic environment linked to rising inflation and interest rates.

Investment banks across the board, as a result, are doing it tough.

Jarden counts itself as an adviser to Origin Energy and has worked on deals including Mirvac Group’s $2bn build-to-rent joint venture, a secondary listing of Light and Wonder and a Navigator Global equity raising.

For the 15 months to March 31, Jarden Australia, which has about 160 staff, posted a $13.3m loss, as high costs linked to its launch contributed to the bottom line.

It is understood that the business remains on budget for the full year despite market headwinds.

It announced $143m in revenue for the half year and group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $6.6m for the period with Investment Banking contributing $10.5m and wealth management $12.3m.