Perpetual, the Australian investment manager that is not related to the NZ firm, sold Guardian for A$68.5 million ($63.4 million) to Complectus, a newly incorporated company co-owned by the Milford Active Growth Wholesale Fund and Andrew Barnes-owned Bath Street Capital Limited.

then announced that is it integrating its assets with Perpetual Trust, which is owned by Bath Street. Milford Active will co-own the new merged entity. The sale has been settled on 7 April 2014 for cash.

"We see strong benefits in integrating the two businesses, two of the country's oldest trustee firms, and we will be injecting new thinking and ideas into our services for our clients," said Barnes, who now functions as managing director of Complectus, in a statement.

Guardian Trust has around 2,800 clients and some NZ$600 billion ($516 million) in funds under supervision and NZ$2.7 billion in funds under management. Perpetual Trust has around 2,300 customers with NZ$1.6 billion in funds under management.