There’s set to be another shake up in the West Australian wealth management and broking market, a year to the day since the last one.

Twelve months ago, Shaw & Partners announced it would acquire Perth’s DJ Carmichael. Today, West Australian wealth manager Euroz (ASX:EZL) announced it is seeking to join forces with non-listed peer Hartleys.

The companies are both prominant in Western Australia and Euroz is one of only two ASX-listed deal rainmakers, the other being parent company of Bell Potter, Bell Financial (ASX:BFG).

Euroz is offering $30.2m (in the form of 33 million shares at 91.5c per share) to snap up Hartleys.

Hartleys shareholders will own up to 17 per cent of the entity and two nominees will join the Euroz board.

While the deal is only a non-binding term sheet at present, the bosses of both companies have backed the merger.

Euroz chairman Andrew McKenzie said combining the firms would create a dominate West Australian financial services company. He noted they had solid synergies and when merged would possess a strong balance sheet and solid revenues.

“This transaction would bring together mutual respect and similar cultures that, if combined will focus on delivering positive outcomes for clients and shareholders alike,” McKenzie said.

Hartleys’ chairman Ian Parker said his entire team was excited about the opportunity and that he was confident in the ability to integrate the two firms and leverage their cultures.

 

Euroz reports good trading conditions

Today, Euroz also provided a trading update and reported “good recent trading conditions, resulting in solid brokerage and corporate revenues”.

Underlying cash profits after tax amounted to $6.7m for the 11 months to May 31. Euroz has $47.7m in cash and its total value of cash and investments is over $100m.

However, the headline result is an unaudited $4m loss. This is due to non-cash offsets and reporting of previously incurred costs associated with March’s closure of fund manager Prodigy.

Euroz had a joint venture with Prodigy, owning 80 per cent, but opted to pull the plug in March due to insufficient scale.

Euroz’s results come in light of increased participation in the equity markets by investors. The ABC reported last week that since March the number of new share trading accounts opened daily had more than tripled.

The company also announced it was now in position to be paying a final dividend of 6c per share.

Euroz shares climbed 18 per cent this morning.

 

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