Credit Clear jumps 31pc on ASX debut

Backed by rich listers Alex Waislitz and Paul Little, the debt collection fintech could be a new market darling.

Gerd Schenkel. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Shares in newly-listed fintech Credit Clear surged 31.43 per cent on its ASX debut, defying a broader market downturn.

The company, which offers a digital platform for debt collection, finished at 46c a share, up considerably on the 35c listing price achieved following a $15m IPO a fortnight ago. It leaves Credit Clear with a market capitalisation of $103.8m.

Backed by rich listers Alex Waislitz and Paul Little alongside Ellerston Capital, the company aims to simplify the debt collection process through their digital platform and is well-poised to capitalise on a boom in debt collection activity as corporate and government moratoriums on debt repayments begin to run out.

More than 250,000 people have used the platform for repayments, with the company booking $11.2m in revenue last financial year.

Credit Clear chairman Gerd Schenkel said the company saw business increase throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and anticipates it will continue to grow over the coming year.

“Early on at the beginning of COVID we had some clients who had call centres overseas and they were rapidly shut down by overseas governments and those clients needed alternatives – which were digital ways of collecting,” Mr Schenkel told The Australian.

“But we also had some clients who said ‘we are not going to collect for a period of time’ – now those clients are going to collect because they need to for their own purposes, so we had to ramp up collections for them.”

A serial disrupter, Mr Schenkel has come to Credit Clear after stints as CEO of Tyro Payments, founder and director of Telstra Digital and as a pioneer of NAB’s UBank platform.

Last November Credit Clear acquired traditional debt repayment company Credit Solutions and Oakbridge Lawyers, providing additional ways for their clients to collect payments.

Mr Schenkel said the proceeds from the IPO will be used to win over corporate and government clients.

“Effectively, we want more penetration of the segment we are already in – large and middle sized billers,” he said.

“That’s utilities, but also finance companies and governments.

“We have quite a few government clients, local councils, and some state and federal agencies.”

Despite dealing in debt recollection, Mr Schenkel said Credit Clear’s main focus was to grow alongside the economy through increased take-up of is platform

“While we are in receivables management and we sort of benefit from people paying their bills not quite on time, our real goal is to grow with the economy and make it easier to collect the debt that needs to be collected,” he said.

Mr Schenkel says that with more than 600 firms operating in the debt collection space, disruption is sure to come one way or another.

“With respect to acquisitions, we have nothing to announce at the moment,” he said.

“Whether we will see smaller players effectively give up and say ‘we cant service this growing technological demand’, or whether clients shift growing portions of their business to us, or if there is M&A activity, is hard to predict … we have a long-term view.”