Iress completes sale of super business

Iress has today completed the sale of its superannuation business to Apex Group.

Apex Group purchased the super business for $40 million cash and additional payments of up to $20 million over 12 months subject to agreed revenue milestones. The terms remain unchanged from the announcement on January 20.

Iress will continue to provide certain services for up to 18 months in the transition of ownership, and highlighted there is no change to its FY25 guidance from the divestment.

Iress Group chief executive and managing director Marcus Price said the offloading of the super business will help the company to focus on its core objectives.

"As we complete this transaction, I'd like to once again thank our people, clients and partners for their contribution to Iress during our ownership of the superannuation business," Price said.

"Divesting the Superannuation business enhances our ability to focus on our high-quality core businesses of wealth and trading and market data where we see good opportunities for organic growth and higher returns for shareholders."

The sale of the super business follows Iress' divestment of QuantHouse, a market data business, at a discount of 45% at €17.5 million ($31.4m) from what it purchased it for in 2019.

Iress paid €38.9 million ($69.3m) for QuantHouse, which provides 145 data feeds from exchanges and other data providers to clients in North America, Europe and Asia.

Meanwhile, the super business adds to Apex Group's aggressive expansion in Australia, which secured a mandate to administer Diversa Trustees' $7 billion master trust business in April, and made several key appointments earlier in the year.