(9 July 2019 – Australia) Tyro CEO Robbie Cooke is confident the payments disrupter is ready to become a publicly traded company with an ASX listing giving shareholders more liquidity as opposed to targeting capital raising.
The payments technology fintech confirmed it was considering listing on the ASX. Tyro recorded over A$148 million in revenue in the 2018 financial year with a standing 2015 valuation of over A$500 million when it raised A$100 million in capital from TDM Growth Partners, Tiger Global Management and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes.
Tyro is currently canvassing bankers and investors about the float by formally pitching for lead mandate manager mandates however the group has not yet decided how much capital it would raise. The initial public offering (IPO) could take place in the coming 18 months but not before November 2019. Tyro was founded in 2003 and recently acquired a banking licence to become an authorised deposit taking institution (ADI). The group offers credit, debit and EFTPOS card acquiring facilities, Medicare and private health fund claiming and rebating services and interest-bearing transaction and deposit account offering integration with Xero accounting software. Tyro accepts money on deposit and offers unsecured cashflow-based lending to its customer base of 20,000 Tyro EFTPOS merchants with its own in-house, cloud-based mobile core banking platform. East & Partners Merchant Payments program indicates growing point-of-sale (POS) terminal use for Tyro in addition to Square, PayPal and other non-bank providers.
“Tyro is in a good position. It's well capitalised and it has cash on the balance sheet. In terms of operating rhythm, we're doing everything you'd do in a listed environment already. We release half-year and full-year results that are audited and have investor presentations. But it's more of an exercise in looking at the liquidity it would provide to shareholders and what other benefits would come about too” Tyro CEO Robbie Cooke said.
“We're excited by our position and about the opportunities, but we're still relatively small in the three verticals we operate in and the opportunities are huge. I love the business, the energy and the smarts here. Half of the organisation are software engineers and there is a great intellect, drive and enthusiasm for the payments space, as well as doing the right thing for our customers. It reminds me of Wotif, which really was helping customers. Tyro is really helping merchants” Mr Cooke added.