Global private equity firm TA Associates will make a strategic investment in licensee Viridian Advisory, despite concerns over conflicts of interest with the Viridian business structure.
The partnership was announced on Monday, but Viridian would not disclose how much TA is paying for its stake, nor how much it is buying, when asked for further information by Professional Planner. TA will take two seats on the Viridian board.
Viridian was founded a decade ago and now manages $16 billion of funds across three specialist business: advice licensee Viridian Advisory; separately managed account service Infinity Capital Solutions; and mortgage broker/finance lender Smartmove Lending, which it acquired in 2023.
Announcing the Viridian investment, TA said it is a global private equity firm founded in 1968 which invests in more than 560 companies across technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services.
In 2021 TA acquired a stake in Betashares, and has been an investor in Russell Investments since 2016 and in Yarra Capital Management since 2017.
It said it has raised $65 billion in capital to date and has more than 150 investment professionals across offices in Boston, Menlo Park, Austin, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong.
TA senior vice president Lily Xu and head TA Associates Asia Pacific Edward Sippel will join the board of directors.
The investment to the Viridian AFSL comes as private equity moves into deeper into the advice chain – including AZ NGA and Merchant investing in advice practices, and KKR investing into Colonial First State – but pointedly, little capital has so far been committed to licensee investments.
The TA investment has been approved by Viridian’s founders, board of directors, and senior management team. The agreement remains subject to customary conditions with a settlement expected to occur in the third quarter of the 2025 calendar year.
In April this year an investigation by Professional Planner revealed that more than half a dozen former Viridian advisers claimed the firm operated a problematic vertical integration model where they felt subject to an incentive to promote Infinity SMAs to clients.
Viridian’s model also offered equity stakes in the company to its advisers, which meant they would also benefit from the success of the SMA service.
“We were treated with disdain if we never invested into the in-house Infinity SMA,” a former adviser told Professional Planner.
“On a scorecard, they couldn’t promote it, but it was definitely in the background if you’re ‘on the bus’ or not, so to speak.”
Viridian defended the structure, with the firm’s CEO Glenn Calder sating the firm’s systems had been built by a King’s Counsel to be legally compliant, and that it was audited annually.
However, Viridian had undergone a multi-year project which it claimed further separated its advice and asset management arms.
