PIS, Mulligan align to manage funds

Kate Mulligan

A significant new player is about to enter the funds management arena, with Australia’s fastest growing dealer group PIS joining with the former head of Advance Asset Management, Kate Mulligan.

The new funds management company will leverage off the extensive PIS network as well as the newly established Associated Advisory Practices.

Chief Executive of PIS Robbie Bennetts said the move into funds management was something that had been on the agenda for some time, but had been made possible by the capabilities and experience of Mulligan.

“We’ve always had it on our table but been reluctant to go this way without the right person to run it,” he said.

PIS managing director Graham Evans said the PIS distribution channel represented a major opportunity in the funds management area, but that, in addition, there was the recently formed Associated Advisory Practices.

“We’ve got about 70 practices signed now and another 30 at paperwork stage — there’ll be an opportunity for us there with quite a number of boutique dealers in play,” he said. “I think we’ll be accepted quite well by the platform dealers as well.”

He said the new company would follow a “manage the manager” business model by bringing to market a select range of established and new asset managers on an exclusive basis.

Commenting on how the new funds manager would operate, Mulligan acknowledged that the experience she gained in growing Advance to more than $7 billion in funds under management would prove invaluable.

“I know the market extremely well, I am already in discussion with boutiques and some international managers as well,” she said.

“There are a huge number of opportunities to bring to advisers some really unique offerings in terms of high alpha performing funds in the boutique space and a lot of new international entrants coming to Australia,” Mulligan said.

She emphasised that it was the PIS distribution network that would prove the main attraction for fund managers and international entrants.

“I think what asset manufacturers really look for is distribution and we have Australia’s largest distribution group — I think that says it all,” Mulligan said. “Their main game is asset manufacturing, so this model allows them to focus on that and for us to do what we do best, which is take the product to market.

“This will give the advisers a really good opportunity to access something that would only be available in the institutional space.”

Bennetts said he believed there were strong opportunities for growth from the new business.

“One of our unique talents in this group is [an ability] to grow the market — we will actually grow various areas of the business that have not been grown before,” he said.

Mulligan said the new business would have a very finite, very high conviction offering, starting with five funds and ultimately growing to 10 or 15, but always with a focus on high-performing managers.