Count Financial chairman Barry Lambert expects to scale back his duties with the financial services firm to focus on the planned listing of Countplus.
The decision to step away from day-to-day control of the listed group follows the appointment of Deloitte Actuaries & Consultants managing partner Andrew Gale as the firm’s new chief executive and managing director.
Lambert intends to work alongside Countplus chief executive Jeremy Wardell for the remainder of the year, with the firm on track for the December 2010 listing of the Count subsidiary.
“Count listed in December 2000, and I thought 10 years later we’d do a second one and probably the last one for me,” he said.
Lambert said at the completion of Countplus’s listing, he will consider his options and again reduce his workload to two days a week.
“Once Countplus is out of the way, I see myself going back to two days a week,” he said.
Lambert said Gale’s appointment marked a new era for Count, with the 5 per cent stake in industry peer DKN Financial Group an indication the firm is well positioned to make acquisitions.
“Count is 30 years old and we’ve actually just kept out of trouble, you might say, and we haven’t done anything in terms of acquisitions up until just recently,” he said.
Former Count chief Marianne Perkovic informed the market in mid-November 2009 of her decision to resign from Count and join Colonial First State (CFS) as its general manager of distribution.
Perkovic said she had approached CFS at least a month prior to her resignation.
