Just weeks after Madison was delivered to Infocus, Clime has announced that chief executive Annick Donat has handed in her resignation.
Donat joined in mid-2020 when Clime acquired Madison, now owned by Infocus, and she was then CEO of the licensee before taking over as CEO of the group a year later.
Madison was founded by an adviser, Peter Mullen, in 1983. After growing the business, he sold the licensee to Pharos Financial Group in the mid ’00s.
In 2018, Pharos sold Madison to Sargon, which planned to re-brand the licensee to Sargon Advice Services. That plan was stalled when Sargon went into voluntary administration in early 2020.
Sargon owned OneVue a $31 million deferred payment following its acquisition of OneVue’s Trustee Services business. As part of a resolution, OneVue, which had a joint venture with Madison for the WealthPortal platform, ended up owning the licensee business.
OneVue CEO Connie Mckeage sought a buyer for Madison, with OneVue wanting to remain out of advice, and Clime bought the company in the middle of 2020.
Post-Covid the Clime share price peaked at 68 cents a share, on 3 September 2021, and closed at 32.5 cents a share on Monday afternoon.
The firm had a rocky financial performance, reporting a loss of $1.61 million in its 1H24 results, compared to a $236,353 after tax profit for the previous corresponding period. Funds under management and advice remained around $5.5 billion over the last few years.
Madison had 105 advisers at the end of FY20, but numbers declined over the past few years and 54 will make the move to Infocus.
After Insignia Financial announced a shake-up of its licensee business – which included the divestment of licensees RI Advice, Consultum and TenFifty into what is now known as Rhombus Advisory – Clime announced it would seek to offload Madison into a similar co-operative style model deal with another Insignia-owned licensee, Godfrey Pembroke.
However, the non-binding heads of agreement quietly lapsed earlier this year with neither party believing it was the right move, Godfrey Pembroke CEO Mark Fisher told Professional Planner in April.
In a statement to the ASX on Monday, Donat said Clime’s managed account capability, the transition of Clime Private Wealth to a full strategic advice service strategic partnerships with Torica Capital and TIP Group, and not-for-profit community initiatives were among her key achievements at the company.
Professional Planner unable to contact Donat before publication, but in the ASX statement she thanked the company for four “fulfilling years”.
“Throughout this time, we have navigated an evolving market landscape, and I am proud of the resilience and dedication our team has shown,” Donat said.
“Together, we have achieved considerable progress in key areas.”
Donat namechecked the chief operating officer Kara Boden and chief financial officer Tushar Kale for their work in re-shaping the foundation of the company.
“As I transition out of my role, I remain a committed shareholder and am confident in the company’s potential,” Donat said.
“I wish the business continued success and thank the Board, our shareholders, clients and our incredible team for their support during my tenure.”
