MLC will get a reboot in 2025, says Insignia chief Scott Hartley

MLC will be rebooted in 2025 under its owner, ASX-listed wealth management company Insignia Financial, which only weeks ago completed the brand’s separation from NAB.

Insignia Financial chief executive Scott Hartley. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

The relaunch of the MLC brand will be one of the major focuses of ASX-listed wealth management company Insignia in 2025, according to its chief executive, Scott Hartley.

In a response to The Australian’s CEO survey 2025, Mr Hartley, who took over as Insignia’s chief executive in March, signalled the rollout next year of his 2030 vision strategy and the relaunch of the MLC brand, which has been out of the market for five years.

Mr Hartley said 2025 would be “a big year for Insignia Financial”.

“The three things I’m most excited about are starting to execute on our 2030 vision and strategy, and relaunching the MLC brand,” he told The Australian.

He said the company had just finished a “large and costly program” to separate MLC from its former parent, National Australia Bank. This would result in a significant drop in its investment spending next year.

“Our investment spending (in 2025) will be about half that of the 2024-25 financial year,” he said.

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Mr Hartley knows the MLC brand well, having run MLC’s corporate and institutional wealth business, before leaving to become chief executive of Sunsuper, which he ran for six years from January 2014, moving to AMP in January 2021 when he was appointed chief executive of its wealth management business in Australia.

Insignia bought the MLC wealth business from NAB for $1.4bn in a deal announced in 2020, after buying ANZ’s wealth management assets in 2017 for $975m, as the big banks sold out of their wealth management arms.

Mr Hartley said the program to separate MLC from NAB had only just been finalised a few weeks ago.

His comments come as the Insignia board is considering a non-binding, indicative $4-a-share proposal from Bain Capital that was received on December 12, worth $2.7bn if it goes ahead at that price.

The Insignia board said it was considering whether it was in the best interests of shareholders to engage with Bain.

Directors said there was “no certainty” that the proposal would result in a binding offer “or that any transaction will eventuate”.

News of the indicative proposal resulted in the company’s share price rising from $3.03 on December 9 before news leaked in the media, to $3.61 on Friday after the board confirmed the offer, with the company’s shares trading around $3.60 this week.

John Wylie, whose investment firm Tanarra Capital is the largest shareholder in Insignia, said on Tuesday that he regarded the Bain proposal “as highly opportunistic”.

Tanarra Capital and its clients collectively own 15.2 per cent of the company.

Mr Wylie said Tanarra had not had any discussions with Bain Capital regarding its indicative and conditional proposal for Insignia, “nor encouraged them in any way”.

“We want the Insignia management team to remain focused on the business improvement plan they are in the early stages of delivering,” he said in a statement to The Australian.

Australia’s second-largest superannuation fund, the Australian Retirement Trust, is Insignia’s second-largest shareholder, recently increasing its holding in the group from 9.34 per cent to 10.4 per cent.

CEOs’ big call: Don’t waste inflation crisis, seize the moment for reform

Mr Hartley, who took over after the departure of long-time Insignia chief executive Renato Mota, who left last year after 20 years with the group, has moved to restructure the group and hire new executive talent.

He split the group into four businesses: asset management, superannuation (Master Trust), its wrap platform, and its advice business.

In July Mr Hartley announced the appointment of former ART chief commercial officer Dave Woodall to head up the firm’s $180bn superannuation business, a role he took up on November 1.

Mr Hartley last month said he wanted his firm to challenge Macquarie Group and Westpac and become the largest player in the platform business.

Insignia is ranked third in the platform business in Australia.

Insignia had $94bn in its wrap platform as at June 30, behind Westpac’s BT, with $135bn, and Macquarie, with $137bn.

Mr Hartley’s strategy has also been to cut $200m a year in costs by 2030.

In his CEO survey with The Australian, he said the group had “felt the effects of inflation in our business, particularly in relation to technology costs and wages”.

He said the group was expecting two cuts in interest rates next year – with the first in the first half.

He said Insignia was taking a “don’t rush in and do everything at once” approach to the use of generative artificial intelligence.

He said it was focusing on its advice and wrap business for the use of generative AI, while “continuing to evaluate commodity AI capabilities and opportunities to partner with leading technology partners”.

Mr Hartley said the group was using generative AI and large language models to help its call centre agents.