Macquarie no longer following Mark Bouris’ Yellow Brick Road

Mark Bouris officially open the Yellow Brick Road wealth management office at Baulkham Hills.

Macquarie Group is believed to have offloaded its shares in the Mark Bouris-led finance firm Yellow Brick Road to the Mercantile Investment Company — the group chaired corporate raider Sir Ron Brierley.

A substantial shareholder notice was lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday, revealing that Mercantile had lifted its interest in the financial planner and wealth manager (YBR) to 19.9 per cent from about 10 per cent.

However, DataRoom understands that Macquarie was the seller.

Before the acquisitions of the shares were made on Friday night, Macquarie and Nine Entertainment both owned about 18 per cent of Yellow Brick Road, according to Bloomberg data.

Yellow Brick Road was founded and chaired by Mark Bouris, who has starred in The Celebrity Apprentice Australia.

It was founded in 2007 and the mortgage lender and wealth manager made its stock market debut in 2011 with the aim to take on the banks.

But YBR shares have crashed in recent years, falling from 69 cents in 2014 to their current value of 13.5c.

Some investors have since been unhappy following the underperformance of groups that the company has bought.

Mr Bouris overhauled YBR’s structure twice in 2016, and after a string of acquisitions and a with $37 billion mortgage portfolio, the company made its first $2 million profit last year since listing.

While it appears that Mercantile could be about to embark on a takeover, its strategy for the business remains unclear.