How is Iress progressing its transformation project?

As Iress makes leadership changes, Money Management examines the progress of its transformation update which is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.

Earlier this week, the financial technology firm announced group chief executive Marcus Price would be pivoting in his role to focus on strategic growth opportunities for the business. Price has worked at Iress since July 2022 as managing director and group CEO. 

In his place, Harry Mitchell was promoted from group executive for APAC and the UK to deputy group chief executive. 

It is a speedy rise for Mitchell who only joined the firm in April 2023 as chief executive for wealth management and was quickly promoted to group executive for wealth in September 2023 across Australia and the UK.

Prior to joining Iress, he worked at superannuation software firm Recreo for six years and was the chief executive of superannuation fund Mine Super for five years. 

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Speaking this week, Price said: “Harry has proven himself to be a dynamic leader at Iress, delivering improved profitability and performance in our wealth business and executing a significant turnaround in our UK businesses, and we are delighted he has accepted the role of group deputy CEO.”

Transformation project

The reason for the change is to allow Price the space to progress its transformation project of “reset, refocus and build” which is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. This was announced in April 2023 and covered six areas:

• Structure for accountability and improved performance.
• Reset the costs and asset base including headcount reduction and asset realisation.
• Refocus on the core of wealth management, trading and market data, and superannuation
• Manage portfolio for value.
• Finish technology uplift, including transition to platform architecture and cloud optimisation.
• Build a new business.

At the time, Price said: “It’s clear that change is required to guide Iress to its next growth horizon. Our objective is to remain at the forefront of our chosen industries in our chosen markets where opportunity abounds. 

“We are on the cusp of a new era and it’s our job to step into that and drive the change necessary in the industry.

“What we aspire to be is a company with the attributes of higher growth and EBITDA margins that rates among leading global technology peers.”

Progress so far 

Since then, the firm has sold its managed fund administration (MFA) business to SS&C Technologies in August 2023 for $52 million. In February 2024, it announced it will sell its platform business to Praemium and it has divested its UK mortgages business to Bain Capital Tech Opportunities LP for $167 million. 

In its results for the 2023 calendar year, it said it had been a “challenging year” but the transformation program was “progressing well”, with the company strongly positioned for growth in 2024.

As well as the divestments, there was a 15 per cent reduction in headcount, $50.5 million raised from asset sales which was used to retire debt, and revenue was $625 million – up slightly from $615 million in 2022.

However, it did suffer a cyber incident in May which affected the OneVue production environment containing client data after a credential within the user space was stolen and conducted an internal investigation.

“The investigation has found no evidence of unauthorised access to Iress’ production environment, software or client data other than a limited portion of Iress’ OneVue production environment. This environment primarily contained information of a technical nature such as metadata, blank questionnaires and test files.

“Within the test files, Iress also identified a limited amount of personal information relating to 20 individuals who were employees of OneVue and its clients, and had entered their personal information for testing purposes.

“Each of these individuals has been contacted directly about the incident and provided with appropriate guidance and support. Iress has also engaged specialist cyber incident and forensic technology providers to assist in response to the incident.”

By its results for the first-half of 2024, Price said the benefits of the transformation program were being realised ahead of schedule and there had been strong action on cost reduction. There had been strong growth in earnings, with adjusted EBITDA up 52 per cent from the same period a year ago to $67 million. 

New pricing frameworks implemented, streamlined operating model and disciplined cost management have all been implemented, it said.

As a result, it upgraded its guidance and stated it was looking to reinstate a final dividend for 2024. 

In an update this week, the firm said in an ASX statement that Iress “continues to make strong progress to streamline operations, improve profitability and return to balance sheet strength”. 

People moves 

As well as the aforementioned appointments this week, it appointed Sam Wall from Insignia to take over from Paul Giles to lead its superannuation division. At Insignia, Wall was the general manager for master trust and insurance.

Jason Hoang, who co-founded financial planning software Xplan, announced he will depart after more than 20 years with the business and will be replaced by Geoff Rogers as chief executive of trading and market data. 

Rogers joined Iress in 2022, most recently overseeing its South Africa and Canada division. Prior to joining Iress, he held roles at MLC and NAB including group executive of advice. 

It also appointed two independent non-executive directors to the board in Susan Forrester and Robert Mactier as part of a board renewal process. 

“The company has commenced recruiting new non-executive directors and is already in the market seeking an additional director with deep financial experience. To the extent that appointments are made during 2024, it is possible that the board will comprise up to nine non-executive directors for a short period during the transition, falling to seven following the 2025 AGM.”