Westpac drops sale of BT Panorama after being unable to find buyer

The banking major has been unable to find a buyer for BT Panorama after touting the wealth manager to a number of parties in a search for a $600m buyer.

Westpac has abandoned the sale of its wealth management business BT Panorama after failing to find a buyer, despite slashing its value and seeking well below the $900m the bank paid for the original BT business in 2002.

The long-running sales process has seen Westpac and its team of investment bankers shopping around BT Panorama to a number of buyers, with the bank rumoured to be looking for around $600m for the business.

KKR-backed Colonial First State and AMP were among several parties taking a run at BT Panorama earlier in the year.

But after a “competitive sales process” Westpac announced it would shelve any plans to offload the BT Platforms division and would instead “retain and continue to invest in the business”.

Westpac said it would now look at improving the adviser and investor experience of BT, one of Australia’s largest wealth management platforms.

The move comes after The Australian revealed in January Westpac was looking at retaining BT.

BT Panorama provides systems, with almost $131bn in funds under administration through the platform.

More than 350,000 investors track their wealth through BT, which has relationships with almost half of Australia’s financial advisers.

However, BT has faced a winnowing out of its business, since it took pride of place in the 2000s with a number of challenger companies including Hub24 and Netwealth shaving strips off Westpac’s incumbent.

The sale of the BT Platforms business comes after Westpac already offloaded the personal and corporate superannuation operations that once formed part of BT in a deal with Mercer earlier this year.

The deal with Mercer, sealed in April, was first announced in May last year and saw Westpac bank circa $225m after tax.

The remaining BT Panorama business marks what’s left of the BT brand, which has already exited financial advice and insurance.

Westpac sold the BT life insurance business to TAL, while the financial advice arm was sold to Viridian in March 2019.

Westpac developed the BT Panorama business in-house after its $900m acquisition of BT in 2002.

BT chief executive Matt Rady said the wealth manager was “now a simpler, better business”.

“We will continue to invest in features to improve the adviser and investor experience based on feedback from dealer groups and advisers, including our leadership in digital capability and managed accounts as we transform the way we deliver service,” he said.

“To give advisers more time with their clients, delivering timesaving features for advisers and practice staff is a priority.”

Mr Rady said BT was already seeing technical improvements

“We are continuing to grow our broad investment propositions, including our managed accounts offering and expanding our wholesale investor fund menu,” he said.

As part of the moves announced on Wednesday, BT also said its chief strategy and product officer Kathy Vincent was leaving to join Australian Retirement Trust as the superannuation giant’s chief of retirement.