Hobson Wealth: What’s in a name?
Macquarie Group’s offices in Auckland are the same as always, but also different. In the last month, a new logo has gone up next to Macquarie’s: Hobson Wealth Partners, the rebranded, locally-owned, Macquarie New Zealand Private Wealth business, partially sold by the Australian financial group this year.
‘‘The only thing that’s changed is ownership,’’ executive director Warren Couillault said.
‘‘The only thing is we’ve got a new name and a new brand that no one knows.’’
The logo’s ‘‘o’’ and ‘‘e’’ resemble the sleeve of Captain William Hobson, the first governor of New
That's a name that has some standing.
Zealand, after who the business is named.
‘‘That’s a name that has some standing.’’
Couillault started looking at Macquarie’s 15-year-old private wealth unit at the beginning of the year, before leading a buy-in by its employees in May.
Macquarie retained a minority stake and has a director on the board.
‘‘Given it’s financial services that I know, people that I know, and an industry that’s familiar, the opportunity stacked up.
‘‘It’s a people business, it’s a New Zealand market not an Australian market, and local market conditions require local market responses.’’
Macquarie was still in the same office, and Hobson would still buy research from it.
Going independent was an important point of difference, Couillault said, because it could respond to opportunities much quicker than when it had to go through levels of approval or see if it fitted with Macquarie globally.
‘‘It doesn’t mean we’re cavalier.’’
Hobson has about 50 employees across Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and thousands of clients, but wanted to expand.
He would not talk about what that might look like, but said it would leverage its ‘‘great research foundation.’’