This article was originally published in GoodReturns and has been reproduced in its entirety here.
https://www.goodreturns.co.nz/article/976514909/fundsource-finally-sold-sort-of.html
The NZX has finally announced a sale of its fund management research business FundSource to an Australian company – however the deal is still conditional.
Thursday, May 23rd 2019, 6:00AM 
1 Comment
NZX has entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement of its funds management business FundSource to Zenith Investment Partners.
Zenith Investment Partners is an Australian investment research provider. “It is dedicated to the delivery of premium, managed fund investment research and portfolio solutions, including managed accounts, for financial advisers and other investment intermediaries,” NZX says in a statement.
NZX hasn’t disclosed a price, nor what conditions have to be met. However, it said the price was “not material” to the listed company. It also says this sale completes the divestment of NZX’s non-core businesses.
“Our efforts are now completely focused on growing our core markets, Smartshares, Wealth Technologies businesses.”
FundSource plays an important role in the New Zealand market, and we are committed to working with Zenith to ensure this continues and that there is a seamless transition to the new owners all customers.
The stock market operator committed to selling FundSource in 2017, valuing its assets at the end of that year at $435,000. In 2018, it wrote down the value of goodwill and other intangible assets by $352,000, and held it as a $20,000 liability as at December 31, BusinessDesk reports.
The formal sale process stated in October last year.
Zenith was established in 2002 and is privately owned and provides advice based research solutions. It aims to strengthen the value proposition and entrustment of financial advisers with their clients, and is built on two key principles: investment research excellence and a business model aligned with advice practice success.
Disclosure of interest: Tarawera Publishing expressed an interest in buying FundSource.
Comments from our readers
On 22 May 2019 at 10:54 am Pragmatic said:The natural buyer of this business was Darren Howlin (qual researcher) together with a distribution partner such as Tarawera Publishing. It’ll be fascinating to see how future value is extracted by the new owner.
Comments are closed