Yellow Brick Road sells new shares at a premium

Yellow Brick Road said on Friday that it had sold A$10 million in new shares, mainly to Macquarie Bank.

Macquarie first invested in YBR in late 2012, paying $6 million for an 8.3 per cent stake.

Chris Ellison, an early investor in the financial services business, also bought some of the new shares.

The placement was equal to seven per cent of the issued capital. YBR sold the shares at 70 cents each, a premium of 30 per cent to Thursday's share price of 54 cents.

The Financial Review, in its Street Talk column, speculated that YBR was "on the hunt for merger partners in the financial planning space" and listed four prospects: Centric Wealth, Mortgage Choice, Dixon Advisory and Matrix Planning Solutions.

Yellow Brick Road has a busy product launch schedule this year, with plans for new consumer and commercial leasing packages, a superannuation fund, a term deposit range and a credit card.

The company reported a loss of $3.7 million for the six months to December 2012.