Private equity group Five V Capital has made its second WA-focused investment this year, becoming a shareholder in share registry Automic Group.
Private equity group Five V Capital has made its second WA-focused investment this year, becoming a shareholder in share registry Automic Group.
Five V Capital will invest alongside existing shareholders and take a significant minority interest in Automic as part of a “substantial” capital injection.
Founded in Perth in 2015, Automic has grown to work with over 800 ASX-listed and unlisted organisations.
Its growth has included last year’s acquisition of competitor Security Transfer Australia.
Automic said at the time that made it the third largest player in the market, behind Computershare and Link Market Services.
Another competitor is Nedlands-based Advanced Share Registry - the ASX-listed company recently reported a big increase in annual net profit to $2.5 million on revenue of $6.6 million.
Automic said its partnership with Five V Capital recognised the growth opportunity given the pace of technological change across the ASX and international markets, as well as heightened scrutiny on corporate governance capabilities.
The company said it offered a single platform to manage governance, legal, registry, company secretarial and finance services to clients, which include Zip, Guzman & Gomez, NobleOak and helloworld travel.
Sydney-based managing director Paul Williams said the investment by Five V Capital would accelerate its strategic growth initiatives.
Five V Capital’s Justin England said he saw great potential for Automic’s innovative technology to further digitise and streamline registry services.
The Automic investment comes after Five V Capital acquired a majority stake early this year in Fremantle-based shipping agent Monson Agencies Australia.
Automic and Five V Capital were advised by Privatus Capital Partners, Gilbert + Tobin, PwC, KPMG, Oliver Wyman and Johnson Winter & Slattery.
