Craigs Investment Partners forms strategic alliance with J.P. Morgan

Craigs Investment Partners has has formed an alliance with J.P. Morgan.

Private wealth manager and investment bank Craigs Investment Partners has formed a strategic alliance with J.P. Morgan and will look to form a similar tie-up with the US investment powerhouse in Australia.

The deal does not involve J.P. Morgan taking a stake in Craigs but it does help fill the void left by Deutsche Bank, which sold its 49.9 per cent stake in Craigs last year, Craigs managing director Frank Aldridge said.

Aldridge said Craigs' 50 per cent-owned Australian investment firm, Wilsons, would be looking at a similar tie-up with J.P. Morgan, which has been a significant player in Australian mergers and acquisitions and capital raisings over the last 12 months.

"Australia is still a strategic priority for us," Aldridge told the Herald.

"What we are looking at doing in Australia is alongside what we are doing with J.P. Morgan in New Zealand," he said.

Aldridge said the deal would give clients access to J.P. Morgan's research globally, as well as exposure to J.P. Morgan's expertise in investment banking, mergers and acquisitions and other big corporate deals.

He said the Australian investment scene "is a very interesting one for us".

"It is going through dislocation with the banks, so we do see an opportunity," he said.

"In forming an alliance with J.P. Morgan, the focus is on the New Zealand market in particular and it will fill the gap left by Deutsche bank last year, but we do have an eye on Australia as well," he said.

From J.P. Morgan's perspective, Craigs will operate as its New Zealand branch.

Craigs will remain a stand-alone business, with Craigs' shareholders retaining 100 per cent ownership.

"While the alliance brings benefits to Craigs' corporate and private wealth clients - there will be no change to the business structure, the operations or management team leading the firm and service to our clients will remain seamless," he said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co is a leading global financial services firm, with assets of US$3.1 trillion and operations worldwide.