ABOUT THINKSMART

ABOUT THINKSMART

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WELCOME TO THINKSMART LTD

 

ThinkSmart is a specialist digital payments platform business with a shareholding in NYSE-listed Block, Inc (NYSE: SQ) (“Block”) and operations within retail consumer and business finance.

 

ThinkSmart has two areas of focus, aimed at delivering value and returns via:

 

A shareholding within NYSE-listed Block, Inc

 

ThinkSmart holds shares in Block, the NYSE-listed global technology and payments group that, through its subsidiaries, is providing economic empowerment by creating the tools to help expand access to the economy.

 

ThinkSmart has a rich heritage in delivering value via strategic investments and initiatives:

    • From commencement in July 2017, fully launches Clearpay in March 2018, a new ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ payments proposition and platform which it had developed
    • August 2018: Disposes of a 90% stake in Clearpay to then Australian-listed Afterpay, retaining a 10% shareholding. Put / call options for the remaining 10% holding are built within the Sale and Purchase Agreement (“SPA”)
    • August 2021: Afterpay agrees an all-share transaction by Square, Inc (since re-named to Block, Inc) valuing it at AU$39 billion. Completion of transaction would enable Afterpay to trigger its call option early
    • December 2021: ThinkSmart successfully negotiates for the disposal of its 10% stake in Clearpay to Afterpay in exchange for 1,650,000 shares in Afterpay.
    • January 2022: ThinkSmart shareholders overwhelmingly approve the transaction
    • February 2022: Block / Afterpay transaction completes, and ThinkSmart’s Afterpay shareholding is exchanged for 618,750 shares in Block
    • December 2022: ThinkSmart sold 468,667 Block shares following implementation of the Scheme of Arrangement.

 

Investment in technology, expertise in UK retail consumer payments and finance

 

ThinkSmart’s technology-led approach and retail sector expertise has yielded a proprietary, highly robust origination and credit decision engine, SmartCheck, which powered its point-of-sale lease finance payments solutions.

 

ThinkSmart also operates legacy retail consumer and business finance offerings, which have been in well-documented managed wind-down, together with the provision of an outsourced call centre customer support service for Clearpay. ThinkSmart ceased writing any new business in February 2021 relating to its retail consumer and business finance offerings, and is managing the wind-down by adjusting the cost base accordingly.

 

Strategy

The Board of ThinkSmart believes that there is significant potential for future value accretion via its holding in Block. ThinkSmart will continue to primarily focus its strategy on the delivery of shareholder value via managing its holding in Block (as it did with Clearpay), while carefully executing the managed wind down of its operational activities and provision of the Clearpay call centre outsourced services.

 

Background to ThinkSmart

ThinkSmart was founded in Australia in 1996 and commenced operations in the UK in 2003. Following the sale of its Australian and New Zealand operations in early 2014, ThinkSmart’s primary trading operation has been within the UK.

 

The company is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.