In the red at Yellow Brick Road
Neither the network of 44 Yellow Brick Road branches nor its four established, though unrelated, financial services' businesses are generating much cash for the group, which is on the verge of a backdoor listing on the Australian Securities Exchange.ITS Capital and Investments, an ASX micro cap, yesterday published a prospectus in connection with the share issue. This is a condition of the former's planned purchase of Yellow Brick Road - and the company's change in direction.Yellow Brick Road is the four-year old business established by Mark Bouris, the founder of Wizard Home Loans. He is working alongside a number of key Wizard executives all of whom left Wizard's former owner, GE Capital, after the latter sold the business to Aussie Home Loans in 2009.YBR has some high-minded aspirations and "aims to become a leading agitator in the Australian financial services market through its disruptive business model", according to the prospectus.The prospectus shows that YBR generated revenue of A$150,000 in the six months to December 2010 - at least as recognised in the profit and loss account. Cash receipts for the half year were $609,000.YBR incurred an EBITDA loss of $401,000 over six months and a loss of $327,000 from continuing operations. Finance origination and broking accounted for 27 per cent of revenue in the six months December 2010.YBR distributes prime home loans funded by Gateway Credit Union (under a two-year agreement due for renewal at the end of this year); non-conforming home loans funded by Resimac (under an open-ended agreement reached in late 2010), and also operates as a mortgage broker in conjunction with the aggregation group, Connective.YBR plans to sell $12.5 million in new shares under the prospectus. Nine Network is also investing $9 million, half of it in kind.The group will have a notional market capitalisation of $52 million following the offer.