AMAZING LOANS ALL IN THE FAMILY
The micro finance company Amazing Loans has called a general meeting for May 27 to ask shareholders to approve an issue of shares worth more than $50 million to take over a company that is less than a year old and is only now establishing an operating business. The deal involves related party transactions and requires shareholder approval.According to an independent expert's report by BDO Kendalls Corporate Finance, issued with the notice of meeting on Friday, the target company, Investment Evolution, has a stock broking business that is still being established, a financial planning business with 150 clients acquired in March, a mortgage aggregation business, FirstRock Mortgage Centre, which has just been acquired and a private equity division that is "yet to be formally launched".Investment Evolution, an unlisted public company, was established in May 2006 with an issue of shares that raised $1.5 million. A further issue of shares in June raised $6.5 million. The company issued a profit and loss statement for the six months to December 31, reporting revenue of $698,000 and net profit of $184,000.Major shareholders in Investment Evolution include Paul Mathieson and Russell Woodrow, who are also shareholders and directors of Amazing Loans. Mathieson, who is chairman and chief executive of Amazing Loans, owns 20 per cent of the shares of the company. Woodrow, who is a director of Amazing Loans, has a beneficial interest in 5.2 per cent.In February Amazing Loans announced a scrip bid for Investment Evolution, offering 3.75 Amazing Loans shares for one Investment Evolution share.At Amazing Loans closing price of 33 cents a share last Friday, each of Investment Evolution's 41.2 million shares is valued at $1.20 and the acquisition is valued at $50.9 million.Amazing Loans shareholders will be asked to approve the acquisition of 8.5 million Investment Evolution shares from Mathieson Enterprises, a company controlled by Paul Mathieson, plus the acquisition of one million shares from entities controlled by Russell Woodrow and shares held by Ian and Anna Mathieson, the parents of Paul Mathieson.Another of Investment Evolution's major shareholders is Ron Medich Properties, which has 7.5 million shares. Ron Medich Properties has provided Amazing Loans with a $25 million funding facility with an interest rate of 14.5 per cent.Amazing Loans was incorporated in February 2005 and started trading in June of that year. It provides what it calls alternative finance though a network of 13 franchised outlets in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. Loans are typically between $1000 and $5000 with terms of up to two years and interest rates of up to 47.5 per cent in NSW and 119.9 per cent in Victoria and Queensland. As of February this year it had 5050 customers and $10.7 million of loans outstanding.The company's accounts for the six months to December 31 show Amazing Loans making a net profit of $2.49 million on revenue of $9.9 million. The revenue figure includes a $4.4 million one-off item from an asset sale. Excluding that one-off item the net profit was $370,000.The independent expert's report