WA company listing for Bouris venture

A one-time labour recruitment company chaired by Lyndon Rowe is being used by Wizard Home Loans founder Mark Bouris for a back-door listing of his new venture on the Australian Securities Exchange.

In a deal featuring many familiar faces to those in WA business circles, ITS Capital Investments has entered into an agreement to acquire financial services company Yellow Brick Road in return for the issue of over 99 million ITS shares.

ITS will cease operations after the deal is completed, effectively ending its WA operations to focus on YBR's efforts on the east coast.

ITS previously traded as Interstaff International and was founded by ex-Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA economist Dan Engles.

Mr Engles formed Australia Visa and Migration Services in 2004 after leaving CCI, merging with another firm in 2008 to create Interstaff.

In May this year, Mr Engles and partner Sheila Woods bought the migration part of the business in a management buyout, and continue to trade as Interstaff, while the main company changed its name to ITS.

Since Mr Engles' departure, ITS has been led by the chairman of the WA Economic Regulation Authority Lyndon Rowe, but today it was announced that with the company in transition, he would step down.

Mr Rowe has been replaced by well-known Perth business identity Farooq Khan, who sits on the boards of Orion Equities and Alara Resources.

Mr Khan takes the position of interim chairman, highlighting the fact that ITS will effectively cease to be once Yellow Brick Road takes control of around 85 per cent of its shares as part of the deal.

ITS had a total comprehensive loss for the 2009-2010 financial year of over $340,000, following on from a $2.8 million loss the year before.

The company estimates that after the acquisition of YBR, the combined group will have assets of around $17 million.

YBR was established in 2007 and provides wealth management advice, products and services to retail and SME clients.

Just this year the company has gone from 16 to 46 branches across the eastern states and is aiming to challenge the big four banks in the wealth management and mortgage markets.

After the acquisition, up to three YBR directors will join the ITS board, and some ITS board members will be asked to stand down.