Gould Holdings emerges as potential Vestar buyer
George Gould, who took over and listed the Mike Pero Mortgages business, has emerged as the potential buyer of Vestar.
Wednesday, April 30th 2008, 5:56AM
As reported yesterday, various financial services firms including AXA, Dorchester and Macquarie had looked at buying Vestar from its owner, ASX-listed Octaviar (formerly MFS Australia).Good Returns understands interests associated with Vestar founder Kelvin Symes also looked at making a bid.
It is unclear if any formal bids were made by these organisations.
Symes founded Northplan, which was sold to MFS in 2006 for around $52 million. The business was renamed Vestar and MFS then acquired other financial planning firms including Swains, Westplan and Colin Strang Financial Services.
All these firms were already associated with Vestar and were merged into the business.
It is understood MFS paid more than $70 million in total for Northplan and the other businesses. It also acquired Rotorua-based Jones Financial Planning.
George Gould has confirmed he is looking to acquire the group.
Gould came to prominence in the financial services industry in 2004 when he took control of Mike Pero Mortgages (MPM) and subsequently listed it on the NZX.
MPM had a short life as a listed entity as NZ Finance and Liberty took the firm over.
| « AMP Capital turning conservative | Sovereign takes regulation bull by the horns » |
Special Offers
Commenting is closed
|
|
Printable version |
|
Email to a friend |
