NAB hangs on to JBWere in wealth arm sale

National Australia Bank’s decision to retain its JBWere business has not come as a major surprise to analysts, who say the bank remains eager to target high net worth customers.

Banks around the world are building up their private wealth services in the hope of selling other products to their most wealthy individual clients.

NAB confirmed speculation yesterday it was offloading the remaining operations of its wealth management arm, with leading wealth manager JBWere being the exception.

Some estimate the MLC business could be worth as much as $4 billion.

Investment banks are yet to be appointed, but Morgan Stanley, Macquarie Capital and Bank of America Merrill Lynch all worked for NAB when it spun off its Clydesdale banking operations in Britain in 2016.

After a nine-month review of the business, NAB said it would exit its advice platform, superannuation and asset management business, now operating under MLC.

The bank is running a dual-track process, with the business to be sold by the end of 2019 — likely via a float or demerger.

The deal has widely been tipped for some time after the bank sold its life insurance operations to Nippon Life for $2.4bn in 2016.

Speculation has recently been mounting that Nippon Life could be once again in talks with NAB to buy its MLC business.

Should the company float, it will be one of the largest heading to the boards next year.

Set to hit the boards before August is Viva Energy, which is floating its Australian business through BAML and Deutsche Bank. A third joint lead manager is also set to be appointed.

Viva has recently concluded its investor education meetings globally, and with the business already well received it will be in front of prospective Australian retail investors next week.

Ixom is also expected to launch an IPO in the next two years. JPMorgan is working on a divestment of the $1bn chemicals business for Blackstone, while law firm Ashurst is also on the ticket, as revealed online by DataRoom yesterday.