Adler offloads planning stake
Besieged financial services entrepreneur Rodney Adler is to sell his stake in Financial Services Partners, a group which has interests in three dealer groups: Now Financial Services; Inscorp; and Kingston Capital.
Adler is under pressure to sell his stake in the group because of his involvement with failed insurance giant, HIH Insurance, and telco OneTel, which he claims have left him “unbankable”. He is also under investigation by ASIC and has paid over $7 million to the courts which he says has tied up most of his liquid assets.
Now Financial Services managing director Geoff Rimmer says a number of parties, including some institutions, have come forward and offered to purchase Adler’s stake in FSP, and an announcement is expected soon.
“FSP is a good value investment. Now, for instance, has 56 planners on board and is growing, so this is not a fire sale for Adler,” Rimmer says.
Adler currently owns about 17 per cent of FSP, down from his 50 per cent holding two years ago, when he and former FAI executive Dr Frank Wolf formed the group.
FSP managing director Robert Swil says the group is working closely with Adler in the sale of his stake but would not comment on how much the stake was worth.
“It is being handled amicably with Rodney saying the sale is the best strategy for himself and his business partners,” Swil says.
Apart from Adler’s ownership, the remainder of FSP is owned by a number of FSP executives as well as Tower Life and the Australia Investment Development Corporation, part of investment bank Babcock and Brown.
FSP, in turn, owns 50 per cent of the Now and Inscorp businesses as well as 20 per cent of Kingston. The rest of these groups are owned by their own management as well as financial planners with equity holdings.
Swil says Adler was never involved in a management capacity with the operations of any of the businesses under the FSP banner, acting only in a venture capital capacity. He also says that the sale of Adler’s stake will not negatively affect the group.
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