ANZ offloads advice businesses to IOOF
ANZ is selling its superannuation and financial planning businesses to IOOF Holdings for $975m.
ANZ will sell its superannuation and financial planning businesses to IOOF Holdings for $975 million and is still weighing what to do with life insurance.
IOOF will pick up the OnePath pensions and investments business along with four aligned dealer groups as ANZ shifts to distributing rather than manufacturing advice and superannuation products.
ANZ said it will sell IOOF products under a 20-year agreement. ANZ, which has been spinning off assets as chief executive Shayne Elliott refocuses the lender on local retail banking, had been reviewing the future of its entire wealth unit before opting to split it with a partial sale.
ANZ Wealth Australia group executive Alexis George said the bank is still reviewing options for its life insurance business.
“By partnering with IOOF, we are able to create greater value for our shareholders while also providing our customers with access to quality wealth products,” Ms George said.
“The sale of our P & I (pensions and investments) and ADG (associated dealer group) businesses provides ANZ with greater flexibility to consider options for the life insurance business including strategic and capital markets solutions.”
The sale will see IOOF control $48 billion of funds under management and it is embarking on a $450 million equity raising to pay for the acquisition through Morgan Stanley.
It said it will become Australia’s second largest advice business by adviser numbers.
It comes after ANZ had been running a sales process through Goldman Sachs to offload its entire $4bn wealth management division.
The Australian’s DataRoom column tipped that ANZ was exploring a break up of the wealth management platform last week and that IOOF was the eager buyer of the operations that excluded life insurance.
According to a term sheet sent to investors, IOOF will raise $450m by selling shares at between $10.35 and $10.70 each representing a 5-8.1 per cent discount at their last close of $11.26
AAP
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