Bruce Carter
The word seems to be filtering through the well-heeled circles of Adelaide and other parts of Australia that online home lender Tic:Toc might be preparing to launch an IPO of its business.
Since July last year a raft of influential business names have joined the company’s share register including Adelaide’s “Mr Fixit” and Crown Resorts director, Bruce Carter.
Mr Carter and other blow-in investors appear to be coughing up top dollars to secure stakes in the company.
In February Carter paid A$128 for each of his 972 shares in the business.
However the $125,000 investment could only secure Carter a 0.05 per cent interest in the company.
Tic:Toc currently has 1.922 million ordinary shares on issue, which implies a valuation of $247 million at Carter’s buy-in price.
In October last year former ME Bank chief executive Jamie McPhee paid the same price for each of his 1944 shares.
Others to surface on the register this year include the former head of Airbnb Australia, Sam McDonagh, and Pacific Equity Partners’ senior adviser, Paul McCullagh.
McDonagh last month splashed out $750,000 for 5832 shares in Tic:Toc, which works out to $128.50 a share.
The solid investment support for Tic:Toc is hardly surprising given some of the disclosures made by major shareholder, Bendigo Bank, about the volumes coursing through the company’s mortgage origination platform.
Bendigo CEO Marnie Baker revealed in March that Tic:Toc’s loan portfolio more than doubled in the 12 months to the end of December.
Bendigo, which holds a 28 per cent interest in the business, funds all Tic:Toc branded home loans.
The digital platform has been one of the big drivers of the home loan market share gains posted by Bendigo this year.
Tic:Toc collects a commission from Bendigo on the house-branded mortgages it originates for the bank.
However, the Tic:Toc business is not tied exclusively to the regional bank, with the company entering white label distribution deals with other lenders including the CBA-owned Aussie mortgage business.
Most of the investment interest in Tic:Toc has been triggered by its use of artificial intelligence to improve turnaround times on home loans approvals and assessments.
The platform is so efficient that it can deliver a home loan contract to applicants in less than an hour of an application being submitted.
Tic:Toc’s total loan originations stood at around $1.1 billion at the end of December but this is expected to surge in the current half after the company sharpened its pricing earlier this month.
According to the Mozo financial comparison website, Tic:Toc is now offering one of the cheapest variable rate home loans in the local market priced at 1.89 per cent for borrowers who do not require mortgage insurance.
Mozo estimates that Tic:Toc’s standard variable rate is almost half the average cost of taking out an equivalent product with one of the four major banks.