Robbie Bennetts intends to remain chief executive of Professional Investment Services (PIS) even if a sale of the dealer group eventuates.
Last week, National Australia Bank (NAB) confirmed it is in talks with the dealer group over a possible purchase.
It has now emerged that PIS has at least four potential parties interested in bidding for the dealer group’s entire business.
“PIS is not on the market, however we’ve been reviewing our shareholding situation since the announcement of Aviva and we have obviously been talking to NAB [National Australia Bank] about that,” PIS chief executive Robbie Bennetts said.
If a sale did eventuate, Bennetts said he would remain chief of the dealer group.
“Yes definitely. I don’t see myself being too old to contribute just yet,” he said.
Bennetts said the firm has been approached by a number of institutions as well as a private equity company.
While he remained tight lipped over the progress of the four institutional parties, Bennetts said PIS has not pursued the offer from the private equity company.
“The reason why we didn’t pursue the private equity is because we were concerned about diluting the value of our existing shareholders on the basis that we get it right going forward,” he said.
“In this environment we’re more comfortable with protecting the value of our existing shareholders.”
Bennetts said protecting the value of the business and its model is also a priority for PIS, with the firm keen to avoid being bought into a product selling environment.
“I think we’ve made our case very clear to anybody, because we work with mainly professional people, the slightest move towards ‘you will sell this product’ would be a disaster,” he said.
While no deal has been struck with any party, Bennetts is aware at the potential risk of institutions approaching member firms individually.
“That has always been a risk that the institutions go and buy up the industry piece by piece. Obviously that would be a very sad story but it’s a reality and we have our mechanisms for defending our business,” he said.
