PEXA makes board changes ahead of ASX listing

Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) has announced the appointment of board members ahead of its listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in July.

Earlier in June, Link Group – which owns 44.1 per cent interest in PEXA holding company Torrens Group Holdings – confirmed that it had signed an underwriting agreement for the purposes of a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of the property platform, with an implied value of $3.3 billion.

As such, ahead of this listing, PEXA has said that it has appointed Dr Kirstin Ferguson and Melanie Willis as independent non-executive directors, effective immediately.

Dr Ferguson is currently a non-executive director of SCA Property Group Ltd, EML Payments Ltd and Envato. She was previously the CEO of Sentis Pty Ltd and the director of corporate services at Deacons (now Norton Rose Fulbright). She has also been an adjunct professor of the Queensland University of Technology Business School since 2015.

Ms Willis is currently a non-executive director of Challenger Ltd, Southern Cross Austereo, PayPal Australia, and the Australia Pacific division of QBE Insurance Group Ltd. She has held executive roles as CEO of NRMA Investments (and head of strategy and innovation), CEO of a financial services start-up, and director of Deutsche Bank, and has previously worked in corporate finance at Bankers Trust and Westpac.

PEXA has also appointed shareholder nominee directors Vivek Bhatia (Link Group nominee) and Paul Rickard (Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) nominee) to the board, effective immediately.

In addition, John Hawkins (Link Group nominee) will continue as a board member, PEXA said.

Mr Bhatia is currently the managing director and CEO of Link Group and has over 20 years’ experience in financial services, government and management consulting, serving as CEO of the Australian Pacific division of QBE Insurance Group Ltd. He was also the inaugural CEO and managing director of iCare (Insurance and Care NSW), and lead the restructuring and transformation practice at McKinsey & Company across Asia-Pacific.

Mr Rickard is currently serving as a non-executive director of Tyro Payments Ltd and WCM Global Growth Ltd. He has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, serving as a senior executive with the CBA for over 15 years, and was the founding managing director of CommSec.

Mr Hawkins has been a nominee director of Link Group on the company’s board since June 2013 and is a non-executive director of Specialised Container Holdings Pty Ltd. He has over 30 years of commercial, mergers and acquisitions, accounting and financial experience from various roles at Optus, Perpetual Ltd, and KPMG (Australia and the UK). He served as the chief financial officer of Link Group between 2001 and 2019.

Torrens Group Holdings lodges prospectus for IPO

PEXA holding company Torrens Group Holdings has announced that it has lodged its prospectus with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to list on the ASX via an IPO.

As part of the IPO process, Torrens Group Holdings Ltd will change its name to PEXA Group Ltd (PEXA), according to PEXA.

The offer, other than the employee gift offer and a 1:4 matching share component of the employee and director offer, is fully underwritten and is expected to raise total gross proceeds of $1.175 billion based on an offer price of $17.13 per share. This would value the company at a total enterprise value of $3.3 billion with a market capitalisation at the offer price of $3 billion.

Around $216 million of the gross proceeds would comprise the issue of new shares by the company, while around $959 million of the gross proceeds would comprise a secondary offer of shares by existing shareholders, PEXA said.

It added that the IPO would allow the introduction of new institutional and retail shareholders who could support PEXA through its next phase of growth and support employees, directors, senior personnel and practitioner partners in becoming shareholders.

Furthermore, PEXA said that the IPO would provide the company with the benefits of an increased profile as a listed entity.

PEXA – which said that it will apply for admission to the official list of the ASX and quotation of shares on the ASX under the code PXA – added that it is expecting trading of the shares to commence on a conditional and deferred settlement basis on or about 1 July 2021, and on an unconditional basis on or about 2 July 2021.

Joint managers and underwriters to the offer include Barrenjoey Advisory, Macquarie Capital (Australia), Morgan Stanley Australia Securities, and UBS AG Australia branch, while Allen & Overy is acting as legal adviser to PEXA, it said.

[Related: PEXA partners with homelessness organisation]