Wisr raises $33.5m to fund expansion

Earlier this week, Wisr requested a trading halt to be applied to its fully paid ordinary shares ahead of a share placement to raise additional capital.

After completing a bookbuild and receiving “exceptionally strong” interest from investors, Wisr yesterday announced that it received commitments to raise $33.5 million via a placement of approximately 181 million ordinary shares at an issue price of 18.5c per share.

The issue price represented a 15.9 per cent discount to the five-day volume weighted average price of the lender’s shares prior to commencement of the capital raise.

The placement, which according to Wisr attracted a number of “high-quality” institutional investors, will be issued in two tranches.

The first tranche of approximately 92 million shares is expected to be issued next week, while the second tranche of approximately 89 million shares to be issued is subject to shareholder approval from a meeting scheduled for March 2020.

Wisr’s trading halt, which commenced on the 13 January, has been lifted off the back of the announcement.

The placement was managed and arranged by Shaw and Partners as lead manager and supported by Blue Ocean Equities.

Further to its placement, Wisr has announced that it would provide existing retail shareholders the opportunity to increase their holdings at the same price offered in the placement via a share purchase plan (SPP) offer.  

Wisr is targeting $1.5 million in capital from its SPP offer but added that it may use discretion in scaling back applications or issuing a larger number of shares.

Following the completion of Wisr’s placement, John Nantes, chairman of Wisr thanked investors for their interest and congratulated CEO Anthony Nantes on the lender’s business performance, which he said helped drive the result.

Wisr CEO Anthony Nantes added: “We are very pleased with the strong support we have received for the capital raise.

“The result is a clear validation of Wisr’s strategy and vision to provide Australians with a smarter, fairer alternative when it comes to their personal finances, and our approach to redefining what a consumer lending company can be.”

The chief executive said that Wisr would use the funds to accelerate its growth strategy, which includes the expansion of its product suite.

“Wisr will use the proceeds of the placement to support the scaling of the core lending business, the ongoing development of our ecosystem of category-defining products, continue to attract the best talent from across industries in Australia and strengthen the balance sheet,” he said.

“Through our unique strategy and commitment to a meaningful purpose, we look forward to making a positive and sustained impact as we grow the company.”

Last week, Wisr reported a sharp increase in loan originations in the second quarter of the 2020 financial year (2Q20) when compared to the previous quarter, bringing its total loan originations figure to $163.8 million.

According to Wisr, it achieved $31.6 million in new loans originated in 2Q20, an increase of 36 per cent when compared to the previous quarter.

Further, the lender noted that its originations for the first half of the financial year (1H20) hit $54.9 million, an increase of 90 per cent when compared to the corresponding period and a 35 per cent increase on the second half of the 2019 financial year (2H19).

[Related: Lender halts trading ahead of ‘significant’ capital raising]