AgFin Australia

Perpetual’s rocky road ahead

Investment manager Perpetual (ASX:PPT) on Monday delivered a mixed bag of news ahead of its full-year results for 2023-24, due out on Thursday.

The more significant announcement was a pre-tax impairment charge of approximately $547 million, triggered by outflows of investment funds under management. This loss, largely attributed to J O Hambro and TSW, totalled $12 billion over the year to June 30.

Despite this impairment, Perpetual’s financial performance prior to the charge was already under pressure due to a company split.

The ASX statement on Monday explained that the impairment charge was a non-cash item resulting from a larger-than-anticipated decline in funds managed by J O Hambro and TSW. This outflow, which amounted to $12.4 billion in the second half of FY24, led to a reevaluation of goodwill associated with these businesses.

Perpetual noted that nearly all of the outflows were concentrated in these two managers, with J O Hambro experiencing an outflow of $8 billion and TSW losing $4 billion. Based on these figures, the company will recognise impairment charges of $417 million and $130 million, respectively.