Sale debate revived as Bell’s Alastair Provan retires
The retirement of Bell Financial’s executive chairman Alastair Provan has reignited talk the well-known brokerage firm could hit the market, Street Talk understands.
Bell Financial Group executive chairman Alastair Provan (right) will retire from November 1 after 40 years at the firm. Ryan Stuart
Sources said Provan categorically denied a sale is on cards when he addressed employees in a rare all-staff meeting on Friday morning. However, ructions around the settlement of the late Colin Bell’s estate have kept the story going.
Bell, one of the company’s founders who passed away in March last year, handed over the executive chairmanship to Provan in August 2019. Provan joined Bells in 1983.
Why you’d want to sell a stockbroking firm in the midst of a bear market is beyond this column’s comprehension, but crazier things have happened. The sale of Bell’s farms is also expected to help fund the split of Bell’s $130 million estate, which had seen the family at loggerheads in court.
Provan retired after more than four decades with Bell Financial last week. The firm employs more than 750 people and has more than $74 billion in funds under advice. It is the umbrella company for Bell Potter Securities, Bell Commodities, Bell FX and Bell Direct.
In a statement, Provan said he was “proud” of what the company had built, and expressed “complete confidence” in the company’s management team.
Bell Financial employs more than 750 people and has more than $74 billion in funds under advice. It is the umbrella company for Bell Potter Securities, Bell Commodities, Bell FX and Bell Direct.
The company started in 1970 as a commodities trading group, before expanding into stockbroking, investment and financial advice
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