Earlier this year it was announced that Perpetual would sell its corporate trust and wealth management business to KKR, leaving behind the asset management division.

The firm has since entered into a scheme of arrangement under which KKR will buy its corporate trust and wealth management business for $2.1 billion. Perpetual will provide transitional services to KKR for 18 months following completion, with an option to extend for a further 12 months, after which date the corporate trust and wealth management firms will operate as standalone, independent businesses.

But during the announcement of the company’s results for the 2023-2024 financial year, an analyst raised a question about the potential for the deal to be cancelled.

After the deal was announced on May 8, Perpetual shares fell from $22.3 to $19.8, down 11 per cent against gains of 3 per cent by the ASX 200 over the same period.

“What's the contingency planning if the scheme doesn't work? Since the news of this transaction broke, the stock price has fallen quite a bit. Is there a point at which the board or new management would consider pulling out of the deal, and how complicated would it be to untangle it at that point?” the analyst said.

A second analyst questioned the tax liability associated with the deal and whether Perpetual was in discussions with the Australian Taxation Office.

Outgoing chief executive Rob Adams, who will be replaced by Bernard Riley this month, said: “Our full focus is on getting the deal done.

“We are working towards the upper end of the range and believe this represents the right outcome for shareholders, particularly if work is done to ensure our asset management is fit to stand on its own. Our board manages contingency plans. This is not the result we expect, but we manage them.

He said that even if the deal falls through - which he says is unlikely - Perpetual still believes it is best to run its asset management, corporate trust and wealth management businesses separately.

“We realized that the revenue and cost synergies of the three parts would be quite limited and had already moved to make them work independently even before the strategic decision with KKR.

"We didn't see any benefit in having them together and that would be the path we're taking." Each of the three businesses is high quality, but in Perpetual's shell we haven't felt the value has been unlocked to the degree that we feel is sitting in them."

Last week, Perpetual reported a statutory after-tax loss of $472.2 million for the full year ended June.

The fund manager also saw $18.4 billion in outflows in FY23-24. This includes net outflows of $8 billion from JO Hambro's UK Dynamic and Global and International Select strategies and $3 billion from TSW's International Equity strategy.