The old school broker model is fading with online access to investors enabling public companies to reach more investors instantly. This concept of digital capital raises from sophisticated investors has been dominated by Fresh Equities since 2017 but keen for a slice of the action, media company Aspermont (ASX: ASP) has declared intentions to enter the fray.
With Aspermont’s primary services having been in the mining media sector, they have linked up with advisory firms International Pacific Capital and Singapore-based Spark Plus for the fintech venture.
“Aspermont sees an opportunity to leverage its existing corporate and investor audiences for the new venture whilst, at the same time, enhancing its own offerings through the provision of additional complimentary services that will come from it,” the Company said in a statement.
As the largest stakeholder in the venture with 44%, Aspermont has appointed Director Geoff Donohue as Chairman for the capital raising platform business. A senior management team of Aspermont executives Ajit Patel and Nishil Khimasia will be joined by Omar Taheri from Spark and Marcus Hill from IPC.
Between them, the team will have industry expertise in technology, corporate advisory and capital raising to enter a market currently dominated by online Placements platform, Fresh Equities.
Co-founded in 2017 by Ben Williamson and Rhys Davis, Fresh Equities has rapidly risen in sophisticated investor circles by giving Placement access, and the accompanying share price discounts, to verified 708 investors.
As the quickest way for ASX-listed companies to raise money, Placements can only be offered to investors that have been verified by their accountants. Sophisticated 708 investors assumedly are aware of investment risks that don’t require full regulatory disclosures, like that of an IPO Prospectus.
Due to the verification and documentation process, 708 investors traditionally had a dedicated broker that would only offer deals that came through their desk. Under the digital model created by Fresh Equities, investors upload their verification just once, and are sent a daily email with Placement opportunities that include the discount and terms sheet. This has been further popularised by ASX-listed companies sending their Placement offerings to Fresh Equities instead of going through each individual’s ASX broker, of which there are over 100.
Since its launch in 2017 with first mover and monopoly advantage, Fresh Equities has raised more than $450 million for listed companies via their digital Placements platform, earning stamping fees on funds raised up to 6%.
Earlier in the month, they further consolidated growth plans to capitalise on the new age digital investor market with a $2.3m cap raise themselves which was supported by a a fintech founders syndicate containing founders from Wisr (ASX: WZR), Sythetix and Zip Co (ASX: Z1P). This included the appointment of Wisr CEO Anthony Nantes to the Fresh Equities advisory board.
To qualify for Placement opportunities with Fresh Equities or Aspermont’s new venture, a sophisticated 708 investor is one who has: a gross income of $250,000 or more per annum in each of the previous two financial years; or net assets of at least $2.5 million; and a verified Qualified Accountant’s certificate given no more than two (2) years ago confirming the Wholesale Investor status.
Aspermont has offices in the UK, Australia, Brazil, USA, Canada, Singapore and the Philippines but are best known in Australia for their mining industry footprint as owners of miningnews.net and various other mining industry publications.
Alfred Chan is an Analyst at Emerald Financial, specialising in ASX-listed small cap companies.
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