Private equity firms Permira Advisers Ltd. and Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) are believed to be eyeing up New Zealand wealth manager Fisher Funds Management Limited, which is up for sale through investment bank Macquarie Capital. Fisher Funds is backed by private equity firm TA Associates and chaired by well known Australian businessman David Clarke. US-based private equity firm TA Associates owns 34% of the Fisher Funds business, first buying a 25% stake from TSB Bank in 2017.

At the time it was the country's fifth-largest wealth manager. The sale comes after NAB announced a sell down of its New Zealand wealth management business JBWere last year, with private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners buying in and Jarden vending its New Zealand wealth management business into the merged entity. The deal values the new entity at about NZD 700 million including debt, with PEP injecting about NZD 245 million into the business to obtain 35%, with the funds roughly split between Jarden and NAB.