Insignia Financial Ltd (ASX: IFL) shares are marching higher once more today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) financial services company closed yesterday trading for $4.43. In morning trade on Thursday, shares are changing hands for $4.51 apiece, up 1.9%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is down 0.2% at this same time.
This sees the Insignia Financial share price up a whopping 104% in a year, and it follows two big updates this morning.
First up, the ongoing bidding war.
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Insignia Financial shares get another offer
The ASX 200 financial stock is getting a boost today after the company reported it had received an improved non-binding and indicative proposal from Bain Capital to acquire all of its shares by way of a scheme of arrangement.
The improved offer is for $4.60 per Insignia Financial share. That's up from Bain Capital's previous bid of $4.30 a share lobbed on 6 January, and its original bid of $4.00 a share announced on 13 December.
It also matches the $4.60 a share that CC Capital Partners offered in its revised non-binding indicative proposal on 17 January as the bidding war heats up.
The company advised shareholders they do not need to take any action at this time.
What's been happening with the ASX 200 financial stock?
Insignia Financial shares also appear to be catching some tailwinds from the company's quarterly update (2Q FY 2025), released today.
Highlights for the three months to 31 December included a 2.2% increase in Funds Under Management and Administration (FUMA) to $326.8 billion.
Total net inflows for the quarter came in at $2.3 billion.
This was driven by $564 million of net inflows into MLC Expand; $577 million net inflows into retail Asset Management; and $2.0 billion institutional net inflows into Asset Management.
Outflows from Insignia's Master Trust and legacy Wrap products partly offset net inflows.
What did management say?
Commenting on the results that look to be helping boost Insignia Financial shares today, CEO Scott Hartley cited a number of "critical milestones" the company achieved over the quarter.
"In December 2024, we entered into an Initial Agreement with SS&C Technologies to simplify and transform our Master Trust business to deliver meaningful scale benefits for members," he said.
Hartley added:
This arrangement is a critical step in our 2030 strategy and to achieving our targeted net $200 million reduction in base opex [operating expenses] by FY30. We continue to work closely with SS&C on finalising the Master Service Agreement (MSA), which remains on track for the first quarter of calendar year 2025.
Hartley also highlighted Insignia Financial's IT separation of its MLC business from National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB).
According to Hartley:
This was one of the largest wealth management separations in Australian financial services history and the most important initiative that we had to deliver as an organisation in FY25, allowing us to implement our strategic vision for the Master Trust business.
