Macquarie to help Tolhurst's dreams come true

Macquarie Group's strategic alliance with Tolhurst means that it will soon emerge as the largest shareholder in the retail broking and advisory group.

Tolhurst's executive chairman David Browne and fellow director Peter Reilly jointly hold around 31 million shares, which currently equates to just over 23 per cent of the company.

Macquarie will buy 16 million new shares, and 13.8 million from current shareholders – Tolhurst is not saying which investors at this stage, though it will not be Browne and Reilly - taking its stake to 29.8 million. Macquarie has the right to buy further shares to maintain its 19.4 per cent stake after new equity is issued by Tolhurst for the recent purchase of Interfinancial and the planned purchase of Prime Super.

The initial purchase will cost Macquarie around $15 million, of which $8 million will go to Tolhurst to pursue its growth. Browne says the deal will reinforce Tolhurst's intention to transform itself from a retail broker that does some M&A and IPO work, to a mid-sized dealmaker with a retail broking and advisory operation. "This will allow us to pursue deals of a size that we can only dream of now,” he says.