Pengana abandons Gladiator deal
Pengana Holdings has called off talks with a subsidiary of prominent investor Robert Whyte’s Audant Investments group after the pair failed to agree on the final terms of a capital injection deal announced back in June.
The proposed arrangement was for Audant aligned Gladiator HFI to take a 35 per cent stake in Pengana Holdings through the issue of new shares.
“The deal was subject to final negotiations and I guess at the end no agreement could be reached so the two parties decided to part ways,” Pengana chief executive Russel Pillemer says.
Pengana Holdings is the holding company of investment firm Pengana Capital. Pillemer says despite the deal falling through the investment management arm still has access to funds for growth purposes.
“One of the things they [Gladiator] would have brought in would have been capital but nevertheless we still have sufficient capital in order to fund our expansion,” Pillemer says.
Audant is headed up by Whyte, who was a founding shareholder of Advance Bank prior to its merger with St George.
The Audant group has a solid track record of successfully investing in financial services businesses and in particular the wealth management industry.
Audant's Investment Committee is chaired by ex-head of County Natwest Peter Hall, with other members including former Sealcorp chairman Geoff Dunstan.
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