Tyro Payments has appointed Jonathan Davey, the head of its health division, as its new chief executive. 

Davey joined Tyro in May last year, following Tyro’s acquisition of health fintech Medipass Solutions, which he led.

He will be jumping in at the deep end, with Tyro facing a takeover offer from a private equity consortium led by Potentia Capital Management.

Tyro has rejected the unsolicited, non-binding and indicative proposal, saying it “significantly undervalues” the company, but the bidders may be back with an improved offer.

And like all fintechs, Tyro is under pressure from investors to produce earnings. It made a loss for the year to June and was cash flow negative. It has not made a profit in the past five years.

It is Australia’s fifth largest merchant acquirer by terminal numbers. The transaction value processed by Tyro rose 34 per cent to A$34.2 billion in the year to June and merchant numbers grew 10 per cent to 63,770.

But it reported a loss of $29.6 million for the year, following a loss of $29.8 million the previous year. Net cash outflow from operating activities, excluding loans and deposits, was $9 million, compared with outflow of $10.9 million in 2020/21.

The board’s decision to pick Davey for the top job reflects its view that there is a lot of potential in the health business.

Tyro acquired Medipass, a “cardless digital healthcare claiming and payment platform”, last year. It has integrated Medipass into its existing health business and also integrated third party healthcare software so that it is able to support 13,000 healthcare providers.