J O Hambro creates Perpetual impairment provision

UK-based active investment boutique J O Hambro Capital Management is proving problematic for Perpetual Limited obliging it to notify the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) of an expected non-cash impairment charge.

Perpetual notified the ASX that, having completed its impairment testing for the year ended 30 June, it expects to recognise a non-cash impairment charge of approximately $153.7 million, post-tax.

It said the non-cash charge includes an additional impairment of $128 million for the second half of the financial year, predominantly related to the carrying value of goodwill and customer contracts for the J O Hambro boutique within Perpetual’s asset management business.

The Perpetual announcement said that, as previously announced in quarterly updates, “certain key J O Hambro strategies continued to experience greater than expected net outflows throughout FY25”.

“The impairment will impact the statutory results of the Group for the FY25 financial year,” the Perpetual announcement said.

J O Hambro became part of the Perpetual asset management business following Perpetual’s 2023 acquisition of Pendal.