Westpac invites bids for its wealth platform

Australia’s third-largest lender, Westpac, is allowing interested suitors access to confidential information about the business, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the process remained confidential.

SYDNEY: Westpac Banking Corp has started inviting bids for its wealth management unit BT Panorama, according to people familiar with the matter, kicking off a sale of the country’s largest investment platform that has been a year and a half in the making.

Australia’s third-largest lender is allowing interested suitors access to confidential information about the business, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the process remained confidential.

A deal could be worth as much as A$1.5bil (US$1.1bil or RM4.56bil), two of the people said. Indicative offers are due at the end of April, one of the people said.

Westpac is narrowing its focus with a plan to exit wealth, pensions, life insurance and auto finance, which were combined into a Specialist Businesses division in May 2020 with a view to sell them.

The bank’s pensions and financial planning operation last year reported technical malfunctions and poor ratings from regulators.

Deliberations are ongoing and details of the sale such as size could still change, the people said. A representative for Westpac’s BT Financial Group declined to comment.

Westpac shares gained as much as 1.8% in Sydney yesterday, their largest intraday move in more than a week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

BT Panorama serves more than 230,000 customers and has about A$105bil (RM319.48bil) in funds under management, Westpac told investors in its 2021 full year results presentation.

The platform, which has 6,000 advisers, offers clients the ability to review their investment options and choose from a range of managed account solutions.

The platform suffered service failures in August, locking out customers and the financial advisers from transacting and receiving statements for a number of days. The outage was not an information security issue and the cause has been rectified, the presentation shows.

Offerings from pension fund BT Super were deemed to have failed the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s inaugural performance and fees assessment last year, according to the regulator’s website. — Bloomberg