Australian financial services firm MFS is to list one of its New Zealand subsidiaries, MFS New Zealand, through a reverse takeover of NZAX-listed shell company Vistron.
MFS, which has acquired a string of New Zealand financial advisory and service firms, owns 40 per cent of MFS NZ withthe balance held by New Zealand and Australian investors.
Under the $35 million deal, Vistron will acquire all of MFS NZ's shares and pay for them in the form of shares in Vistron.
Vistron was established by sharebroker Brett Wilkinson and associates to provide a friendly company with a quick, inexpensive listing opportunity.
Vistron's existing board would be replaced by MFS appointees, and pending approval from market operator NZX, the company would then move to the stock exchange's main board.
MFS's core asset is finance company MFS Pacific Finance which has assets of about $330 million.
It raises money from New Zealand investors via debenture stock and notes which it then lends on Australian secured mortgages.
MFS NZ chief executive Jason Maywald said a stock market listing, "opens up opportunities to raise capital, use scrip for acquisitions, do on- market mergers and acquisitions and takeovers and all those activities that go with it.
"This is just another step in all of the transactions we're doing at the moment and is most certainly not the last transaction for us."
MFS's New Zealand assets also include Northplan Group, Swains Investment Services, Colin Strang Financial Planning, Westplan Financial Services, and a shareholding in another finance company and other property fund managers.
MFS NZ had entered into an option agreement with another MFS subsidiary to acquire those assets in the future, said Maywald.
