what is grant samuel doing?

FFF announced on 28th. Jan. 2014 that
".........given the material delays and uncertainty in relation to the receipt of the Recapitalisation funds from IZN, Firstfolio has engaged Grant Samuel Corporate Finance to consider potential alternative transactions......."

So what has GSCF been doing since then.

I have been watching Yellow Brick Road (YBR) and their announcement of 18th. March is interesting.

The announcement from YBR included an outline of their plans to boost their mortgage business via acquisition/s. The aim as part of their three year strategic plan is to achieve expansion to around $22B (from the current figure of approx. $2B) and to do that via acquisition/s. The timetable appears to be within the next six months (two and a half years of their three year strategic plan has already passed).

To move from $2B to $22B in that timeframe won't happen without acquisition/s so which companies are being considered by YBR?

The companies with large mortgage businesses are either owned or linked to the major banks, OR, can be ruled out as their market capitalisation would be too much for YBR to handle. There are some bit players but YBR would need to acquire quite a number of those to move to $22B. That would be messy, time-consuming and anyway they most likely wouldn't be willing sellers.

So, are there ANY willing sellers?

The only one that comes to notice is FIRSTFOLIO (FFF).

FFF has a loan book of almost $20B so that would be a fit (would lift YBR from $2B to $22B approx.), and the FFF business appears to also fit the functionality (expained in detail in the YBR announcement) YBR is aiming to achieve. FFF is also an independent.

Resimac/BNL has ownership of around 15% of FFF and could make things interesting for any new potential purchasers such as YBR, however, I would expect they would be willing sellers, at a price that delivers them a profit on their investment.

In the announcement by YBR it was stated that "....Exclusive discussions are now underway on several potential acquistions....".

In the context of the future of FFF the announcement by YBR is interesting reading.

Is YBR in discussions with GSCF and running the ruler over the FFF figures?

YBR supposedly has the support of Macquarie Bank.

I am still a patient long-suffering FFF shareholder. It is back to watching the grass grow as it is almost two months since the last update from FFF. Another update must now be overdue. The timing is interesting, however, YBR may have no intentions towards FFF.

I ealier today put a similar post to this one, on the YBR Hot Copper forum to see if any YBR shareholder knows anything further. YBR shareholders are keenly interested in finding out details of the planned YBR acquisitions. I am not a YBR shareholder.



DYOR - don't rely on these ramblings of mine for your incestment decisions as I am not a licensed investment advisor, so do your own research.