Transact eyes 2018 IPO

Transact has earmarked the first half of 2018 for a stock market listing, according to a shareholder letter (Transact).

The letter, sent in December to shareholders of Transact’s parent IntegraFin Holdings, says the business worked with its corporate adviser Evercore throughout 2016 towards an initial public offering.

Early in 2015 Transact said it was considering an initial public offering with chief executive Ian Taylor writing to shareholders saying an IPO was the most “appropriate” exit strategy for the business. This followed an unsuccessful sale attempt in 2014.

In the December letter, Taylor and chairman Mike Howard write: “As a company with an approach to many things that is contrary to received wisdom, we must consider how we manage ourselves in an environment where all laundry is washed in public. We must ensure that we have made whatever adjustments are inevitable and are ready to advocate our case where we believe the essence of success is to carry on in our own, quintessential, way.”

As a step towards listing, the letter explains a “dividend policy” that has been decided on. The letter says the company will pay out 65 per cent of after tax profits as a dividend, provided there are no “countervailing factors”. It explains, for 2016, a dividend of £12 per share would be paid this month.

According to the letter, Transact saw an uptick in queries from users of Cofunds and Axa Elevate, which were acquired in 2016 by Aegon and Standard Life, respectively.

The letter says inflows for the year to September 2016 were £3.58bn, which was a 6.6 per cent increase on the £3.36bn inflows at September 2015.

Net flows for that period rose 7.8 per cent to £2.2bn from £2.06bn the year prior.