BT exits registry business

bt financial group Software bonds ASX chief financial officer

14 August 2001
| By Nicole Szollos |

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.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

This verdict highlights something deeply wrong and rotten at the heart of the FSCP. We are witnessing a heavy-handed, op...

2 hours ago

Interesting. Would be good to know the details of the StrategyOne deal....

4 days 7 hours ago

It’s astonishing to see the FAAA now pushing for more advisers by courting "career changers" and international recruits,...

3 weeks 2 days ago

Insignia Financial has made four appointments, including three who have joined from TAL, to lead strategy and innovation in its retirement solutions for the MLC brand....

2 weeks 4 days ago

A former Brisbane financial adviser has been charged with 26 counts of dishonest conduct regarding a failure to disclose he would receive substantial commission payments ...

3 days 5 hours ago

Pinnacle Investment Management has announced it will acquire strategic interests in two international fund managers for $142 million....

2 days 8 hours ago