Barings funding deal positions acquisitive AZ-NGA

Paul Barrett’s AZ-NGA is positioned for further acquisitive growth following confirmation that global investment manager, Barings, has backed in Oaktree Capital on funding.

Barings announced that it has acted as joint lead arranger of $345 million of senior secured credit facilities supporting AZ Next Generation Advisory following Oaktree Capital Management’s investment alongside AZ-NGA’s original Italian backer, Azimut.

News of funding move comes in the wake of the most recent Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) reporting period for Australia’s publicly-listed advice firms with some reporting less than impressive outcomes.

Notwithstanding Count Limited reporting a solid lift to a statutory profit of $4 million in the wake of its acquisition of Diverger on the back of increases in funds under advice (FUA), its share price started the week down to 75 cents.

At the same time, Centrepoint Alliance reported a decline in profit after tax to $4.6 million despite an improvement in EBITDA and a 14% lift in gross revenue to $159.7 million.

Centrepoint’s share price kicked off the week down from the time of its results announcement and ex-dividend at 33 cents per share.

Confirming the funding move, Barings head of Asia Pacific Private Credit, Justin Hooley noted that, since inception, AZ-NGA, had established a network of over 30 independently-branded partner firms, collectively managing over $15 billion of assets under advice.

“AZ-NGA and the leadership team have a proven track record and have established themselves as the growth and succession partner of choice for high performing financial advice and accounting firms. This investment is a continuation of our global support for the sector, which includes a number of comparable investments across Europe and the U.S,” he said.

The announcement said that the investment marked Barings’ first deal with Oaktree in Australia and indicated that it might represent the first of further transactions.

AZ-NGA’s most significant recent transaction has been its acquisition with Entireti of the AMP Limited financial advice licenses.