Diverger chair: Acquisition was ‘invited’

Publicly-listed financial planning group, Diverger, has signalled that it actually “invited” the situation which led to the current takeover bid by Count Limited.

Diverger chair, Peter Brook told the company’s annual general meeting that Diverger had been “hunted by invitation”.

He said Diverger had indicated that it was open to participating in larger scale transformative transactions and, in that context, “Diverger has been both hunter and more recently, hunted, by invitation”.

“From the time of my appointment to the Diverger board I had heard from investors and commentators what a great initiative it would be to bring together the several similar sized and focussed businesses in our space,” Brook said.

“It’s a great thesis that makes sense for shareholders and one that my board wholeheartedly support. We have run the numbers on and spoken to most of the players on many occasions with the view to consolidation. We all seemed to have similar characteristics: lumpy registers, low stock liquidity and undervalued.”

Brook also signalled that Diverger had worked collaboratively with Count Limited to ensure the success of the scheme and said that this was reflected in the improved offer from Count of $1.365 per share.

“Securing the inclusion of the ability to pay a Permitted fully franked special dividend should provide additional value to shareholders,” he said.

Diverger confirmed to the AGM its FY24 outlook of a net revenue target of $41 million to $43 million and an underlying EBITDA target of $8 million to $9 million.