Tyro Payments shares fall after health boss Jon Davey appointed CEO as Robbie Cooke departs to Star Entertainment

The fintech’s shares have slumped following the promotion of Jon Davey as chief executive.

Tyro Payments shares have slumped 3.4 per cent after Jon Davey was named the fintech’s new chief executive.

Mr Davey replaces outgoing CEO Robbie Cooke, who is off to embattled Star Entertainment in the new year once he serves out his notice period.

Mr Davey, currently CEO of Tyro’s health business, will step into the CEO role on October 3, with Mr Cooke staying on to assist with the transition until December 31.

Tyro shares were down 3 per cent at $1.30 in midday trade, after earlier falling to as low as $1.28.

Chairman David Thodey said Mr Davey’s appointment was the outcome of an extensive executive search process.

“I am delighted to confirm Jon as our new CEO. Having completed a thorough search process, it is pleasing to appoint such a strong internal candidate,” Mr Thodey said on Thursday.

“Jon is a seasoned technology executive who brings relevant experience from a 30-year career working in financial services, both within corporate and start-up environments.”

Mr Davey, having been a member of the Tyro executive team for close to 18 months, would “hit the ground running” in executing the fintech’s strategy, he added.

The seasoned executive joined Tyro in May 2021 following its acquisition of health fintech Medipass, which he led for a year before the takeover.

Prior to this, Mr Davey spent 10 years at NAB, the last five years as executive general manager for digital, innovation and customer experience.

Mr Thodey also acknowledged Mr Cooke’s time at the fintech.

“The board and I thank Robbie Cooke for his significant contribution over his nearly five years as CEO. We are pleased he will continue with Tyro in an advisory position until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition with Jon,” he said.

Mr Cooke was named Star’s new CEO in June, replacing Matt Bekier who resigned in March, days into the start of a royal commission-style inquiry into the company’s fitness to hold a NSW casino licence.

Star at the time said Mr Cooke was “well placed” to “restore confidence” in the company following a series of scandals. Since then, its woes have worsened, as it faces the prospect of losing its NSW casino licence in a matter of weeks.

Tyro, meanwhile, has had its own challenges of late, include a potential class action and an “opportunistic” takeover bid.

A consortium led by Potentia, the Sydney-based private equity firm run by former Archer Capital managing director Andrew Gray and ex-colleagues Tim Reed and Michael McNamara, last week lobbed a $1.27 per share bid for the payments-focused company, but was swiftly knocked back.

“The board has considered the indicative proposal including with the assistance of its financial and legal advisers and unanimously determined the indicative proposal significantly undervalues Tyro and, as such, is not in the best interest of shareholders as a whole,” Mr Thodey told shareholders last Thursday.

“The board has therefore determined to reject the proposal in its current form.”

Still, investors were quick to drive up the share price, pushing it from 99c the day before the takeover play was made public, to $1.38.

At the same time, the fintech is facing a renewed campaign against it from Bannister Law, which last Friday wrote to customers urging them to join a class ­action.

Bannister is acting on behalf of Spozac over an eftpos outage in January 2021 that left thousands of businesses unable to take credit card payments.