The purpose of the rights issue was to capitalise the firm to accelerate its plan to move from a diversified non-bank financier to a registered bank and leading wealth management player. Other large shareholders include key government agencies: the New Zealand Accident Commission and New Zealand Super. He does not like to think of his activities as those of a typical private equity investor even though he has been involved in half-adozen successful financial services deals in the past 15 years, as well as several very successful real estate and private equity transactions. “I prefer the term ‘cornerstone investor’,” he says. “I want to be involved in building permanent value. My investment horizon tends to be 10 years or more. Certainly, that’s what we are looking at with this [van Eyk].” He says that he has been talking to Thomas for nearly a decade about doing something together. “We invest where we see value and agree with management on strategy and resources required,” he says.

“We think van Eyk is very well-positioned to support the industry and grow with it. Mark [Thomas] wants to take advantage of new opportunities and we will provide the commercial strength to do that.” Kerr did his apprenticeship at ipac, under Arun Abey and Peeyush Gupta, both of whom he admires enormously. And so he should. After a short stint in the Sydney office of ipac in the late 1980s, he was transferred back to New Zealand and became the head of investments for the firm’s New Zealand business. With a couple of colleagues, he then left ipac and co-led a buyout of the Spicers Financial Services planning company in New Zealand. The company grew from about $400 million under advice to $3 billion and 60 advisers to 500 in just a few years, through organic growth and acquisitions. It entered the Australian market with the purchase of Monitor Money and several other smaller dealer groups. “It was very similar to ipac,” Kerr admits.

“We had asset management, master trusts and affiliated and non-affiliated advisers. We sold it to AXA for $275 million in October 2001 and I headed overseas on a noncompete agreement for a couple of years. I did a lot of skiing.” So much skiing, in fact, that his teenage daughter is now a member of the New Zealand team in the World Junior Championships. And he invested with a partner in his own ski field in New Zealand, outside Queenstown. Kerr is an unassuming multimillionaire. He jokes about his dishevelled fashion sense. His life is: family first, then business. But business has to be interesting for him and sometimes fun, like the ski field. He is not a portfolio investor. It’s not so much about the money as it is about building something that lasts. After his sabbatical in Europe following the deal with AXA, Kerr returned to New Zealand and became chairman of a boutique funds manager, Brook Asset Management, which was later bought by Macquarie.