Phil King’s Regal buys Sydney firm as it plots more deals

afr.com:

The chief executive of ASX-listed Regal Partners says the fund management group has the ambition and capital to make more acquisitions after it confirmed the buy-out of 25-year-old Sydney-based firm PM Capital.

Regal on Friday said it had paid a consideration of $150 million in the form of $20 million of cash and $130 million of script to take full control of PM Capital, the $2.7 billion asset manager founded by former Bankers Trust operative Paul Moore. The PM Capital transactionwas first revealed inThe Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column.

PM Capital’s Paul Moore. Ben Rushton

It follows an announcement earlier in the week that Regal had acquired a 50 per cent stake incommodities financier Taurus Management an upfront consideration of $28 million. The deals have added a combined $5 billion of assets under management, lifting Regal’s total assets to $10.8 billion.

But Regal chief executive Brendan O’Connor told The Australian Financial Review that Regal was “absolutely” open to more deals they were accretive to shareholder profits and there was a cultural fit.

“There are a lot more opportunities out there, and announcing these deals accelerates the reverse inquiry we’ll get from businesses, principally domestically,” Mr O’Connor said.

“They see us as being a platform that can help take their business forward. We have a lot more things to have a look at.”

Mr O’Connor said the combined cash outlays for the two transactions were only a quarter of Regal’s $200 million’s surplus capital while he said the high trading multiple of its shares provided further firepower to snap up private fund managers.

PM Capital was founded in 1998 by Mr Moore and oversees manages $2.7 billion of global equities, Australian equities