‘Almost deja vu’: Analyst blasts Perpetual over wealth deal costs
An exasperated Lafitani Sotiriou from MST Financial has taken aim at Perpetual after it admitted it spent $42 million on a failed deal with private equity firm KKR.
Investment manager Perpetual's management has been blasted by analysts after the admission that it spent $42 million on advisory fees on a failed transaction with private equity firm KKR cast doubt over the planned sale of its wealth arm.
Perpetual on Thursday reported a 65% decline in net profit after tax to $12 million, with the result impacted by a $25.5 million impairment on its asset management business, as well as one-off costs related to the failed sale of its corporate trust business and wealth arm to KKR. The stock was down 8.6% at the time of publication.
Earlier in the week, Perpetual said it had terminated talks with KKR following a revised approach from the private equity firm. It said it would retain its corporate trust business but now commence a process to offload its wealth management arm.
But during its earnings call on Thursday, MST Financial's Lafitani Sotiriou berated Perpetual's management team over its inability to accurately forecast the stranded costs associated with the potential sale of its wealth business.
