Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Teaminvest Private Group (ASX:TIP), Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Coleman
Lel Smits: Team Invest Private Group has entered into a binding term sheet to acquire the Intelligent Investor business, including management rights to explore Intelligent Investor Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs from InvestSmart Group. The proposed acquisition would significantly expand TIPS retail distribution capability while aligning with the group’s long-standing value investing philosophy and research-driven approach. Intelligent Investor would become TIPS’ primary direct-to-consumer retail brand, complementing its existing wholesale, institutional and funds management operations.
I’m joined today by Team Invest Private Group CEO Andrew Coleman to discuss the strategic rationale behind the proposed acquisition, the future of the Intelligent Investor brand and also TIPS’ long-term growth strategy. Andrew, welcome back to the Stock Network. Thanks for having me.
Now, TIPS has built a strong reputation across wholesale, investing, education and also funds management. Why was Intelligent Investor the right strategic fit for the group? And also, can you outline really how the proposed acquisition is expected to strengthen TIPS’ long-term growth strategy?
Andrew Coleman: Yeah, great question. Look, Intelligent Investor, I think for most people, has been the premier retail-focused value investing journalism and analyst house now for probably 20-plus years since Alan Kohler, John Addis and the team founded both Intelligent Investor and the Eureka Report.
So, from our perspective, they add the missing bow to TIPS’ overall package, which is that we’ve always provided wonderful research-driven proprietary insights to wholesale and institutional investors, but what we haven’t had is an engine that can attack the retail market and help younger Australians or perhaps less wealthy Australians work their way through that chain. And so, we’re really looking forward to working with Intelligent Investor to be able to build out that ecosystem so that anyone interested in investing in Australia or the principles of value investing can be taken and held on a journey all the way through from their very first engagement with macroeconomics and maybe Alan Kohler, all the way through to a really high-end wholesale or institutional product with us.
Lel Smits: Excellent. And it is a very large footprint that Intelligent Investor has, that’s more than 272,000 active subscribers for ASX-listed ETFs, also a very highly recognised value investing brand. From your perspective, really, how important is this acquisition in terms of really accelerating TIPS’ retail distribution capability and also expanding the group’s research ecosystem?
Andrew Coleman: Well, from a retail distribution capacity, it immediately gives us probably the largest retail footprint at scale in the markets we want to play in. So, I mean, it’s a complete game-changer for us on that respect.
Historically, we’ve been really strong in wholesale and institutional markets, but we’ve had no real presence in retail and this immediately gives us a presence of equal size, which is wonderful. In relation to the analyst capacity, we’ve talked about before, you and I, that at the end of the day, all good investment decisions are driven by a piece of insight put into practice and then iterated. And the ability to get brains of this calibre and add them to our team and together work on those insights, we think will just spin our flywheel faster and faster across both arms of the business.
So, from that perspective, that won’t happen immediately. You’ve got to come up with the insight and you’ve got to put it in practice, but we expect that it will deliver material long-term growth just from that element alone.
Lel Smits: Excellent. And when it comes really to the long-term, you’ve said that Intelligent Investor is going to be your primary retail-facing brand and also maintaining its distinct identity and value investing philosophy. But looking ahead, really, what opportunities are you seeing to grow the platform, also deepen that engagement within Australian investors over the long term?
Andrew Coleman: Well, we see the two platforms as non-cannibalising at all. So, from that point of view, we don’t see there’s any cannibalisation between Intelligent Investor and what Tip and Team Invest add.
What we do is attack the market together along a value investing line, but in two very different verticals. And so, from that perspective, we expect it will be immediately additive and accretive from both sides of that transaction.
Lel Smits: And then, to your point, where to from here?
Andrew Coleman: Well, with a distribution base that is the combined businesses, we have the capacity to do so much more, whether that’s materially increasing the size of our conferences, materially increasing the size of our funds under management, or just simply providing better and better content to Australians interested in investing, for which, of course, we can be paid a reasonable amount for our efforts.
Lel Smits: Well, congratulations on the update on the acquisition of Intelligent Investor and look forward to seeing how TIP evolves with this new bolt-on.
Andrew Coleman: Thank you. It’s very exciting.
Ends