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Stephen van Eyk’s 25 per cent stake in van Eyk Research has been purchased by New Zealand’s Pyne Gould Corporation (PGC) through a private equity deal.
PGC is a listed diversified financial services business that is making a play to become part of New Zealand’s first locally owned listed bank. PGC owns Perpetual Private Trust and Perpetual Asset Management in New Zealand.
The purchase is understood to have been made at 14 times EBIT, through a special purpose private equity vehicle called the Torchlight Fund Number 2.
The person at the front of the deal is George Kerr, a New Zealand businessman known in financial services circles from his time with ipac and Spicers in that country. Kerr is a director of PGC and a 15 per cent shareholder in the business.
Van Eyk Research chief executive Mark Thomas confirmed the change in ownership. Kerr and Thomas are long-term associates. Thomas said while Kerr may join the board and would provide strategic input, neither he nor PGC desired to get involved in day-to-day operational matters.
Van Eyk Research was privatised last Friday. There are around 40 entities with shareholdings in the research company, although they are controlled by around only 20 people, with Thomas being the majority shareholder through his and his family’s shareholdings.
Thomas and Kerr may now seek to undertake selective buy-backs from other shareholders, which include former van Eyk Research staff who are now working with competitors.
Thomas said the deal would provide access to capital, strategic input, as well as releasing Stephen van Eyk’s shareholding in the company he helped create. Stephen van Eyk left the group last year.
It is understood Stephen van Eyk’s payout comes with the price tag of a two-year non-compete agreement.
