Australia’s Insignia Financial soars on reports of Bain Capital buyout

(Reuters) – Shares of Insignia Financial soared more than 10% in the final minutes of trade on Thursday on media reports that private equity investor Bain Capital was in advanced stages of making a buyout offer for the Australian wealth manager.

Insignia’s shares, which hovered around A$3.10 per share throughout the session, soared to A$3.40 in the last 10 minutes of trade settlements, as per LSEG data, propelling the stock to its highest closing level since late February last year.

Bain Capital, which bought out Virgin Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, is working with Bank of America on a potential takeover of the A$2.27 billion ($1.46 billion) financial services firm, the Australian Financial Review reported citing unnamed sources.

Insignia had A$319.6 billion worth of funds under management and administration at the end of September.

Insignia Financial and Bain Capital did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments.

The Australian Stock Exchange’s (ASX) regular trading hours end at 4 p.m. Sydney time, followed by 10 minutes of a pre-closing single-price auction period during which brokers can place, change or cancel orders ahead of market close.

(This story has been refiled to add the dropped word ‘soared’ in paragraph 2) ($1 = 1.5581 Australian dollars)