Ex-Illion boss buys reunification biz Worthington Clarke

afr.com:

Illion’s former chief executive, Simon Bligh, has teamed up with investors to buy family-owned firm Worthington Clarke, which helps trustees and lawyers match missing assets with their rightful owners.

Worthington Clarke united lost assets with their rightful owners. Dominic Lorrimer

Bligh and a few equity partners plan to grow the 40-year-old business. It estimates there is more than $10 billion worth of shares, dividends and bank accounts that are currently disconnected from their owners, who would be willing to pay a fee to be reunited with their assets.

Bligh tapped asset-backed lending specialist Rixon Capital to finance $5 million of the acquisition cost as a sole lender. The deal size was not disclosed, but going by the debt cheque, it would have been sub-$20 million.

Worthington Clarke’s services are cross-border, with links to similar businesses in the United Kingdom and New Zealand helping it locate lost assets across the world. It also has a genealogy research arm for non-professional users which can trace family trees.

Bligh planned to grow the business over a long-term horizon – there’s no private equity ownership and hence a timed exit.

“It’s great to get the chance to own a highly regarded and long-standing business and grow it using the techniques of tomorrow. This is a business with a strong social purpose and in a time when the cost of living is rising it’s great to re-attach people to their money when they need it more than ever,” Bligh said.

He was chief executive at Illion, a credit bureau, for nearly six years, ending in October 2021 after having made the switch from chief financial officer roles – at Sydney Airport and Veda – to running data research businesses.

The deal marks the fourth investment