Bain Capital ups the ante as Insignia's FUMA rises by $7.2bn

In an ASX listing on Thursday, Insignia said it has received a second revised non-binding and indicative proposal from Bain Capital to acquire all of the shares in Insignia Financial by way of a scheme of arrangement at a price of $4.60 cash per share.

Bain’s second bid revision represents a cash price per share equal to the proposal recently lodged by CC Capital Partners.

Insignia noted that in order to determine if Bain is able to formulate a further improved proposal from that reflected in its latest bid, Insignia has offered to provide to Bain a limited due diligence after extending the same privileges to CC Capital.

In a separate filing to the ASX, Insignia said its Funds Under Management and Administration (FUMA) increased by 2.2 per cent to $326.8 billion as at 31 December.

Total net inflows for the quarter were $2.3 billion, driven by $564 million net inflows into MLC Expand, $577 million net inflows into retail Asset Management, and $2.0 billion institutional net inflows into Asset Management. These were partly offset by outflows from Master Trust and legacy Wrap products.

Insignia Financial CEO, Scott Hartley, said, “We achieved a number of critical strategic milestones during the quarter, and presented a vision for the company that will allow us to build on our strong foundations, deliver growth and create value.

“At our Investor Day in November 2024, we outlined our strategy for Insignia Financial to become Australia’s leading and most efficient wealth management company by 2030. This marked a shift in our focus from building capability through acquisition, integration and simplification, to accelerated and sustainable growth through a relentless obsession with our customers”.

In December 2024, Insignia entered into an initial agreement with SS&C Technologies to simplify and transform its Master Trust business to deliver meaningful scale benefits for members. Also during the quarter, the firm completed a strategic milestone with the IT separation of the MLC business from NAB.

“This was one of the largest wealth management separations in Australian financial services history and the most important initiative that we had to deliver as an organisation in FY25, allowing us to implement our strategic vision for the Master Trust business,” Hartley said on the IT separation.

Insignia’s Advised Wrap flows continued to strengthen over the quarter, and the firm reported “solid momentum” in MLC Expand post-migration, with $613 million in underlying net inflows for the quarter, underpinned by its proprietary technology stack and AdviserFirst philosophy, among other things.

In Insignia’s asset management business, net inflows of $2.6 billion were driven by strong institutional flows, and were supported by the launch of the MLC Reinsurance Investment Fund – the first time Insignia Financial has packaged its alternatives capability for the external market.

“The growth we've achieved throughout this quarter and the delivery of these key strategic milestones highlights our ability to deliver our 2030 strategy. Looking forward, we continue to focus on delivering our remaining FY25 initiatives, including accelerated cost optimisation and embedding our new operating structure,” Hartley said.