Peter Gammell-backed Octet takes BoQ's debtor finance arm

Bank of Queensland has sold its debtor finance business to the market’s second biggest non-bank player, privately-owned Octet, and will stump up wholesale funding to help grow the business.

It is understood BOQ and Octet signed a partnership of sorts over the weekend, which sees Octet take control of BOQ’s debtor finance business and then work with the Brisbane-based bank and its bankers to try and grow it.

The deal is to be funded by a new warehouse facility from BOQ, believed to cover the finance book and be worth about $100 million, and will see Octet act as the service provider and technology provider for BOQ’s unsecured trade and finance products.

It’s a unique partnership approach by a fintech and a bank – and will have other banks watching closely to see whether it can gain traction.

Octet is a privately-owned supply chain finance business, with a loan book worth a few hundred million dollars and handling transactions worth about $2 billion a year.

It is understood to be the second biggest non-bank player in the market behind private equity-owned Scottish Pacific, while National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corp are the two biggest providers of supply chain finance. Octet is funded via a $200 million warehouse facility with Westpac.

The fintech was set up and is majority owned by Scottish Pacific founder Clive Isenberg, his son Brett, and Zip Money co-founder Michael Rom, who also double as Octet executives. It’s biggest outside investor is Kerry Stokes’ former right hand man Peter Gammell, who is Octet’s chairman.

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Source: Peter Gammell-backed Octet takes BoQ’s debtor finance arm