MYOB seeks listing on the ASX

Today is a great day at MYOB, as it signifies a real milestone in our development. Just a few minutes ago we filed a prospectus with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. This important document formally announces our intention to seek a listing as a publicly traded company on the ASX.

While listing on the ASX is a marker or signifier of MYOB’s success, the real success of our business isn’t its capital structure, but what we’re able to do each and every day to support the more than 1.2 million New Zealand and Australian businesses that we’re privileged to call our clients.

MYOB was started with a dream. Our founders had a vision of making business life easier. They believed that it was too hard to start and run a business; that the deck was particularly stacked against small businesses, and that there was a commercial opportunity in addressing this situation. For over two decades this vision has motivated and driven MYOB to continually strive to innovate and to deliver – believing in a purpose and cause that is much bigger than each of us as individuals.

I believe I’m one of the luckiest executives in Australia. Every day at MYOB, I’m able to work with colleagues, partners and customers who share my passion for business. I’m proud of the time saving innovations that we’re delivering – things like MYOB On-The-Go, MYOB smart bills and MYOB PayDirect – all enabling business owners to spend less time doing the books and more time doing what they love.

I’ve been at MYOB and predecessor companies for nearly 12 years, and I can say without a doubt that we’ve undergone a tremendous cultural change.  We’ve aligned our business directly with the needs of our customers, and we’ve harnessed our passion for small business to create a comprehensive suite of products for SMEs, accountants and enterprises.  Today we have over 116,000 clients using our cloud based solutions – making them more efficient and able to work in more flexible ways than ever before.

Some of you would know we were listed on the ASX some years ago.  Over the past few years MYOB has been majority owned by Bain Capital.  During this time we’ve had the tremendous support from the team at Bain Capital; as a private company we’ve been able to pursue critical business initiatives which have made us a more competitive company.  Now is a unique and opportune time for us to re-enter the public markets.

Our prospectus includes all the relevant details investors need to know in forming a decision to invest in our company.  Over the course of the next month we will be communicating to the market on the progress we’ve made in the IPO process.  Our intention is to list MYOB on the ASX in early May this year.

As customers and partners, however, you may have some different questions.  For example how will the affect the company strategy, and ability to continue to fund investment in the business.

I’m thrilled to say that through the IPO Bain Capital will not be selling any shares.  Instead we will be issuing new shares and using those funds to pay down some of our debt.  I’ve never felt that we’ve been short on funds to invest in our business, but if anything going forward we’ll have more financial flexibility, not less.

Our Board will now be made up of six Directors: 3 continuing from the existing Board (myself, Craig Boyce and Paul Edgerley from Bain Capital) and 3 new Directors being Justin Milne, Anne Ward and Andrew Stephens, each of whom bring tremendous experience to the MYOB team.

Today, as we reach that point of lodging a prospectus, I want to deeply thank our clients, our partners, and of course our more than 1100 employees who have stood with us and helped us build Australia and New Zealand’s leading accounting software solutions provider.  It’s your shared passion that has brought MYOB’s vision of making business life easier to life.  As we enter the next stage of our company’s evolution, your passion and support will be more important than ever.

This is a tremendous moment for the MYOB family – we couldn’t have gotten here without you.  #LoveYourWork!

This note does not constitute an offer or solicitation for shares.