APRA issues proceedings against IOOF
Recommendation
APRA has issued a slew of proceedings against IOOF's regulated entities and management. Among them, it is seeking disqualification orders against managing director Chris Kelaher, chairman George Venardos, chief financial officer David Coulter, company secretary Paul Vine and general counsel Gary Riordan. IOOF has responded that it believes the proceedings are 'misconceived, and it and its executives intend to vigorously defend the proceedings'.
The proceedings involve complex legal and regulatory matters, so it's hard to discern what will come of them. However, they create uncertainty and have the capacity in themselves to derail the business - for example, approval for the ANZ acquisition had been expected imminently. It now looks like that will be delayed at the very least.
ANZ has responded with its own announcement, with deputy CEO Alexis George stating: 'Given the significance of APRA's action, we will assess the various options available to us while we seek urgent information from both IOOF and APRA'.
We will aim to publish a fuller review within a week. However, in the meantime we are removing the price guide, increasing our risk ratings to High, reducing our maximum recommended portfolio weighting to 5% and downgrading to HOLD.
Note: The Intelligent Investor Model Growth Portfolio and Model Income Portfolio hold shares in IOOF.