From Pendal to post – Perpetual sells Wealth Management

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

17 March 2026

ANALYSIS

The sale of Perpetual’s Wealth Management business to Bain Capital has taken more than year but, in reality, represents the product of nearly three years of decisions and indecision by the company.

In many respects, it represents the corollary of Perpetual’s often-criticised 20232/23 acquisition of Pendal which resulted in $547 million write-down announced in 2024. Indeed, the sale of the Wealth Management business was always viewed as a means of bolstering Perpetual’s capital position. Perpetual said net proceeds would be used to repay its $400 million debt facility.

It took Perpetual from 24 February last year, until this week to seal a deal with Bain Capital after having earlier bailed out the sale of the broader Corporate Trust and Asset Management business to major private equity player Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in February, 2025.

The decision to part company with the Wealth Management business was largely based on the failure to secure a viable deal with KKR, prompting the board to go with the next best thing – the sale of Wealth Management as a stand-alone entity.

It should have come as only a mild surprise that former Perpetual managing director and chief executive, Geoff Lloyd, will be leading Bain’s approach to the Wealth Management business as executive chair.

Lloyd parted company with Perpetual in June 2018 but mention of his name kept recurring in the context of speculation around the future management of the company, particularly following the challenges encountered around settling the Pendal acquisition.

Contacted by Financial Newswire, Lloyd said the priority was to return the Wealth Management business to growth.

His view to growth has to be seen against the reality that the Wealth Management business reported a half-year $5.6 million decline in underlying profit before tax to $23.7 million and funds under management (FUM) of $21.9 billion, up from $21.5 billion in the second half of 2025.

It also has to be seen against the reality that Perpetual had overseen significant savings within the Wealth Management business amounting to an annualised $60 million delivered as at 31 December.