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The SME lender has announced changes to its leadership team following the release of it’s half-year 2020 results.
Prospa has announced several changes to its leadership team following the release of its financial results for the six months to 31 December 2019 (HY20), which include the appointment of co-founder and previous co-CEO Beau Bertoli to the new role of chief revenue officer.
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The shift will see co-founder Greg Moshal continue as the sole chief executive officer, with both men remaining significant shareholders in the company and both maintaining their executive board positions.
Additionally, Mr Moshal and Mr Bertoli will both continue in an extended voluntary escrow period until after Prospa’s HY21 financial results have been released.
Mr Bertoli stated he was “super excited” to take on his new role as the inaugural chief revenue officer, and will focus on growth.
“The new organisational structure will allow both Greg and me to concentrate on what we do best, and in my case that is focusing on growing originations, customers and our distribution capability.
Commenting on the HY20 financial results, Mr Moshal stated: “We continue to invest where opportunities exist to better serve our customers with new products and services, and to grow market share.
“We also continue to lower our cost of funding with new funding partners and leverage our scale benefits as our business evolves.”
He continued: “The proportion of originations represented by higher credit quality customers is expected to remain stable, and as a proportion of loan book will increase over time, continuing to have a positive impact on loss rates, provisioning and cost of funds.
“The management team has adopted a tighter focus on yield management, and this will remain a priority for the business as we continue to execute on growth initiatives in line with our strategy.
“We remain very focused on balancing risk and return as we enter the second half.”
Mr Bertoli said: “We’re focused on how we can best serve more of the $20 billion market in Australia and the NZ$4 billion ($3.84 billion) in New Zealand, providing small businesses with a number of funding options to help them grow.
“Our originations and book continue to achieve strong growth as our business scales and deliver on our strategy.”
He concluded: “Our customer numbers are growing significantly, and we look forward to finding ways to help even more small businesses in Australia and New Zealand to grow and prosper.”
Spike in loan originations
In its HY20 results, Prospa has reported a 37 per cent increase in loan originations when compared with the previous corresponding period (HY19).
Total loan originations for the six-month period were $306.8 million, bringing total originations for the 2019 calendar year (CY19) to $583.0 million, up 34 per cent on the prior calendar year.
Strong loan originations drove group revenue to $75.6 million for HY20, bringing total revenue for the 2019 calendar year to $144.4 million, in line with Prospa’s expectations.
Prospa’s total loan originations have now surpassed $1.4 billion, with over 26,900 customers served, and customer numbers increasing 45 per cent in HY20 when compared with HY19.
The group’s net profit after tax was $0.6 million for the first half of the 2020 financial year, following a loss of $3 million in the previous corresponding period (HY19).
[Related: Prospa expands Queensland team]
