Van Eyk reveals groups’ interest as Mercer deal dies

Up tosix industry organisations, including a number of fund mangers, have expressed an interest in buying van Eyk research, van Eyk managing director Stephen van Eyk has revealed.

Van Eyk toldMoney Managementhe received the offers of interest before he entered into the final stage of negotiations to sell van Eyk Research to William M Mercer.

The revelations come in the wake of the announcement last week that the proposed sale of van Eyk to Mercer had been called off after both groups failed to reach an agreement on several key terms.

It has been suggested that negotiations broke down after Mercer did not agree to pay van Eyk Research $20 million and instead only offered the group an up-front $5-6 million, with the rest of the cash being paid over several years.

Both van Eyk and Mercer Investment Consulting executive director Tony Cole did not comment on the reasons behind the collapse of the deal.

Although he was surprised by the number of parties showing interest in his group, van Eyk says many of the interested parties were simply not a good fit for the research group.

“Mercers were the only people that we were likely to consider, because they are not tied to fund managers and are good people,” van Eyk says.

“We seriously, seriously looked at it. And it is sad that it didn’t work,” he says.

Meanwhile, Mercer has confirmed that it will continue with its push into the retail side of funds management research, despite the breakdown of its negotiations with van Eyk.

Just days after the deal with van Eyk was called off, Mercer signed a consultancy contract with AMP Financial Planning. Under the contract, Mercer will act as the primary research service provider for the dealer group.