The deal, which was hinted at by the company in October, will be executed for a cash consideration of $10.5 million on December 13, plus an additional $2 million in cash, subject to YourShare’s net tangible assets being greater than an agreed minimum.
The announcement follows AWI’s purchase of Fairfax’s online financial services portal InvestSmart on 30 September 2013.
According to an AWI statement on the ASX, YourShare is a similar business to InvestSmart and “provides self-directed investors with low-cost access to financial information and products”.
“The business has revenues of $5.2 million, funds under administration (FUA) of $915 million, with over 16,000 invested clients. It has offices in Mittagong, NSW, which AWK intends to maintain, with approximately 14 staff,” the statement said.
“[AWI] now owns two of the largest online self-directed financial services portals in Australia, with combined FUA of $1.6 billion over 40,000 invested clients and more than 300,000 subscribers to its website, in addition to an undiluted 49.6 per cent share of van Eyk Research, which has $1.2 billion in FUM.”
AWI chairman Andrew Barnes told InvestorDaily in October he was looking to build out a post-FOFA business with three components: independent research; tools for clients (such as asset allocation tools, risk profile tools and portfolio selection tools), as well as a fund management operation if clients require it; and a direct-to-consumer component.
