Platinum ends Regal talks, delivers special dividend

Platinum Asset Management has terminated discussions around Regal Partners’ bid to acquire Platinum via a scheme of arrangement and, at the same time, determined to pay shareholders a 20 cents per share dividend, fully franked.

Platinum announced to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that it had terminated the discussions which were initiated after Regal made a non-binding, indicative proposal in September which was rejected but then led into due diligence in October.

Platinum’s announcement said respective parties had conducted mutual due diligence and that discussions have been terminated “removing the uncertainty that has persisted since Platinum rejected Regal’s initial proposal.”

It said that, as conveyed at the company’s annual general meeting, the Board had reassessed its capital management policy and had decided yesterday to pay a fully-franked special dividend of 20 cents per share.

“After payment of the special dividend, the company continues to have sufficient working capital to pursue its growth initiatives,” it said.

The statement said Platinum remains fully focused on executing its restructure and turnaround strategy “and has so far illustrated momentum in the areas of cost control, remuneration redesign, product rationalisation and a review of the investment process”.

Platinum said investment is the key priority in the next phase of the company’s turnaround and referenced the build-out of its sub-advisory partnerships.

“To this end, we are pleased to announce that we have secured our first partnership with GW&K, a leading US-based small cap specialist with $86 billion in funds under management,” it said.