Perpetual has acquired specialist self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) administrator Smartsuper, to complement its existing range of products.
“We have been a trustee for 100 years and we have one of the larger books already of DIY (do it yourself) super funds, and we have deep relationships with financial planners,” Perpetual group executive structured products and platforms Eric Wang said.
“In order to better support the financial planning industry, we decided it was very important that we actually increase our product set in DIY superannuation,” he said.
Consideration on the deal was $16 million and Perpetual expects it to be accretive from day one.
Under the new ownership arrangement, Smartsuper will continue to exist as a separate brand and will operate as an individual business unit of Perpetual.
“We are keen to maintain the Smartsuper brand because it has developed a very strong brand itself in the market,” Wang said.
The new arrangement will allow Smartsuper better access to a broader range of customers, and Perpetual will now have a service previously unavailable to clients.
“What we did not have was an unbundled SMSF offering of very, very high quality. Perpetual has always had a bundled offering which means trustee, the administration, and the accounting were all together and that did meet all of the financial planning business model needs,” Wang said.
“Now if a financial planner walks in and only wants two out of the four components, we can offer that,” he said.
The acquisition means Perpetual has a total of $3.5 billion funds under administration for SMSFs and small funds.
