BT exits registry business

BT Financial Group has sold its registries division to Australia’s largest provider of share registration services Computershare.

A BT spokesperson says the decision to sell BT Registries was based on the shift in the group’s core businesses since its sale to US-based Principal in 1999.

“Securities and specialist registry businesses are no longer part of our long term strategy and the focus is on core businesses of funds management, corporate super, wrap and funds administration.”

Computershare’s Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) announcement said it will pay a cash consideration of about one times the annual revenue of the BT business, based on its normal method of valuation when making an acquisition. Computershare chief financial officer Darryl Corney would not reveal further details of the purchase price.

The BT Registries business includes equity, debt and customised registry operations in Australia and New Zealand with clients such as Goodman Fielder, CSR, WMC and Brambles. Corney says generally most of the existing clients will remain contracted.

The BT business has a 6.5 per cent market share in the Australian share registry, 85 per cent of the outsourced debt registry market and 100 per cent in rental bonds business, according to the BT spokesperson. Corney says the acquisition will take Computershares holding of the Autralian share registry to more than 60 per cent.

“Before BT, Computershare had a 55 to 60 per cent holding, and already had 95 per cent of the New Zealand market,” he says.

As part of the deal Computershare also gains BT Registries’ propriety registry software, Unishare. Corney says the system will be integrated into Computershare’s existing platform over time, but some clients will continue to run on the system in the short term.

The acquistion by Computershare swallows up the third largest registries business leaving the industy’s second biggest player, ASX Perpetual Registrars, as its main competition. ASX Perpetual Registrars, whose clients include NRMA and Telstra, is currently developing its own bureau services capability, according to the ASX announcement.

The deal had been scrutinised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission before Computershare were able to proceed with the acquisition, to ensure the move would not dampen competition in the share registries business.