Vistra provides advisory and administrative support to fund, corporate, capital market and private wealth clients and last month added a new governance offering aimed at “blank cheque” SPACs participation to its arsenal of services. 

The Australian purchase, subject to regulatory approval, will add Leydin Freyer’s 20-year track record in corporate governance provisioning for ASX-listed companies and boost Vistra’s footprint in Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne.

“This transaction significantly diversifies our Australian client base, with the Leydin Freyer ASX-listed clients complementing our existing international and domestic client portfolio, along with our fast-growing Alternatives sector,’” Vistra’s regional managing director for Asia-Pacific, Jonathon Clifton, said.

For Leydin Freyer, “clients can now tap into Vistra’s global network to access a wide range of corporate, finance, tax and administration services,” the group said.

“Our colleagues look forward to joining a global organisation where they will have more career development and international experience opportunities,” the firm's  founder and managing director, Melanie Leydin, said.

She and general manager Simon Davis will remain with the business and join Vistra. The firm will rebrand to Vistra once the transaction is completed.

There has been plenty of M&A activity in the funds, administration and corporate services space in recent years. In March, for example, ZEDRA, the corporate services, funds and wealth services firm, bought BFCS, the fund and corporate services arm of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg. Suntera Global, the provider of corporate, fund and private wealth services, made its second Luxembourg acquisition, signing an agreement to buy NeoTrust Fiduciary Luxembourg SARL, this week. 

Last year JTC, the international provider of fund, corporate and private client services, agreed to acquire NES Financial, a US-based fund administration services business. The deal comes about a fortnight after JTC bought a private client business in Jersey. In March last year, JTC acquired Sanne’s private client business.