Specialist financier Experien to rebrand as Investec Experien

Financier to professionals in the medical and dental fields, Experien Finance, will be renamed Investec Experien from April 2009 following its earlier acquisition by Investec Bank (Australia) Limited.

Investec's relationship with Experien began in late 2004 when Investec funded the start-up of Experien's lending business. Experien head Barry Lanesman said the funding was instrumental in setting up the business.

"Our business model centred on understanding the financing needs of medical and dental professionals and, typically, these professionals found their experiences dealing with the big banks to be time-consuming and difficult," Mr Lanesman said.

"Investec was the ideal partner because of their long-term experience in developing products and services for the medical and professional finance markets. By establishing a relationship with Investec, we were able to form an independent financial service, offering our clients some of the best funding solutions on the market."

After four years of solid lending growth and developing strong relationships in the medical and dental fields, Mr Lanesman saw that the next phase of growth for the business was to continue to expand the range of unique products to medical professionals.

Following discussions to this effect, in October 2007, Investec acquired the balance of management's interests, and Experien became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Investec Australia. This relationship enabled Experien to commence distributing Investec's deposit products and to deepen relationships with their clients.

As part of the integration, Experien are joining Investec's Private Banking business, which offers further complementary services to Experien's range of specialist financial products and services.

Investec Private Bank co-heads Paul Siviour and Paul Hanley said they are excited about having Experien join the fold.

"Investec provides the solid backing of its global network, strength and reputation to Experien," said Mr Siviour. "We are committed to growing the Experien business, and are excited about the opportunities that are created by this integration."

Both Experien and Investec recognise the complementary business offerings and greater potential for product innovation and entrepreneurial banking solutions.

Mr Lanesman said Experien attempted to cover all aspects of this transition, from relationships with clients and industry associations, to staff based around the country.

"Our aim is to ensure our offering and service standards remain high - as this is what we are renowned for," Mr Lanesman said.

"Importantly for clients, Experien's existing relationships will be unchanged. We will be retaining the same dedicated relationship managers and staff who successfully built the business and will continue to partner with professionals and suppliers in the healthcare industry."

Experien staff are joining Investec in their offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and will continue to operate from their current offices in Perth and Adelaide.

The Investec group is an international specialist banking group providing a diverse range of financial products and services - mainly in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Investec's strategic goals are motivated by the desire to develop an efficient and integrated business on an international scale through the active pursuit of clearly established core competencies in the group's principal business areas.

Within Australia, the principal business areas include:

• Private Banking: private client treasury and investments, property investment banking, growth and acquisition finance, specialised lending, wealth management and professional finance;
• Investment Banking: corporate advisory and private equity;
• Capital Markets: treasury, trading and specialised finance such as project and infrastructure finance, commodities and resource finance, structured finance and financial products;
• Property Investments: property private equity; and
• Asset Management.

Since it was founded in South Africa in 1974, the Investec group has expanded through substantial organic growth and a series of strategic acquisitions. The group employs over 5,000 people worldwide, and is dual listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges.

Investec Bank (Australia) Limited entered the Australian market in 1997 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Investec group, offering a diverse range of investment banking products and services to high net-worth individuals and their businesses, and to a niche corporate market. Investec has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.