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In the Spotlight: Plenti Group Ltd (ASX: PLT)
Adam Bennett jokes that he is now in the fifth chapter of his corporate life, four months after taking over as chief executive of fintech lender Plenti.
His fourth chapter, after stints as CEO of NSW Land Registry Services and various executive roles at NAB, came to a climax last year when he published his first book titled “Great Change: The Way to Get Big Strategy Done”.
The book, that Bennett quips was penned on planes, buses, trains and “over a few schooners” at Sydney’s Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club, details how to implement strategy and drive measurable change using the philosophy of the Tao Te Ching and Japanese martial arts - combined with real-world stories - to deliver a practical, 5-step process for success.
“I'm applying my book absolutely to what I'm doing now,” Bennett says.
“The book is really about why transformation is hard and the reasons for that. For instance, the status quo never has to argue its own case. It talks about corporate personalities and how they think about change, and then it goes into the mindset for and the mechanics of change, especially entering your first 90 days running a business. So starting at Plenti has been a good opportunity for me to put all of that into practice.”
Plenti was launched a decade ago - it was then known as RateSetter Australia - to disrupt the banking industry through peer-to-peer lending, where investors lend their money to borrowers via an online platform, bypassing traditional banks.
It has since shifted to being funded by wholesale facilities, in addition to marketplace funding platforms.
While its core business was originally in personal loans, its more recent growth has been driven by car loans – automotive disrupter Carsales was a strategic investor in the business for some time – and facilitating investment in household renewable energy systems, specifically in home solar and battery installation.
Bennett has also taken over at a critical point in the history of Plenti, after its foundation chief executive Daniel Foggo retired as CEO in July this year.
Foggo remains a non-executive director and 20 per cent shareholder in Plenti and will actively support the company’s growth initiatives going forward, along with two co-founders Ben Milsom and Glenn Riddell, who remain on the leadership team.
“I think I'm quite good at coming up with ideas, but maybe less suited to running a business of 250 people. So I think my core skill set is probably more aligned to a director-type role. I think when you are not encumbered by the reality of having to implement something, you can think a little bit more freely,” Foggo says.
He says Bennett is now bringing in some of the processes and disciplines required for a larger business to perform well, without losing the historic secret sauce of the Plenti business, which is its entrepreneurial spirit.
“We have created a culture of getting things done, giving people a reasonable amount of autonomy within some sensible guide rails to just crack on and create new revenue streams and grow a business,” he says.
“I also think we've attracted a lot of people who are not wanting to just go along with the status quo, but want to really grow something and build a special business. Interestingly, we've actually hired a lot of people who haven't come from competitors or inside the industry. We've basically hired talented people and said, ‘Here's an opportunity, let's think about it from the sort of ground up. What does the customer really want?’.”
Plenti has struck a landmark agreement with Tesla to provide finance for the purchase of electric vehicles (EV) through its website and is offering the same to other EV manufacturers.
Late last year Plenti struck an alliance with major bank NAB, launching what is called a “NAB powered by Plenti” car and electric vehicle (EV) loan, opening up Plenti’s own-branded finance solutions to the major bank’s personal banking customer base.
NAB and Plenti also entered into an equity investment agreement under which the big four bank could acquire up to 15 per cent of Plenti’s shares based on a number of milestones.
Bennett says despite achieving 18 consecutive half-year periods of lending volume growth in its renewables business, Plenti still has only ~12% of the addressable market in the space.
It also has significant room to grow in the personal loans and automotive market segments.
“I think the electrification of society is going to be really interesting. Obviously, we haven't reached peak solar yet and we are nowhere near that. If you look at all the literature around the world, that is really a booming opportunity for us and we are very, very well placed,” he says. “Then you add in batteries, and it starts to make that market segment look even more vibrant, especially as governments get behind it. It is going to be a market characterised by incentives, and we can leverage our deep technology assets to really go to market quickly and be highly integrated into our partners.”
But Plenti chief financial officer Miles Drury, who joined the firm in 2020, stresses the growth will not come at all costs - it will be profitable.
Plenti recently announced a 260% increase in half year cash net profit after tax to $5.5 million and materially reduced its cost to income ratio to 24% from 29% a year ago.
Its diversified loan portfolio increased to $2.3 billion as at 30 September 2024, up 14% from the previous comparable period (pcp) and up 6% from 31 March 2024.
The strongest relative growth was achieved in Plenti’s renewable energy loan book, up 28% on pcp, in part reflecting the positive impact of Plenti’s unique GreenConnect platform.
The Plenti share price has more than doubled over the past year.
“This is a complex business but in some ways it's a relatively simple business,” Drury says.
“If you grow your originations and your loan book, if you manage your margins and your losses effectively, and if you deliver cost operating leverage - because the technology allows us to scale the business without using the same level of incremental resources - the math just tells you that the number at the bottom line gets bigger reasonably quickly.”
The firm has also been working for some time on integrating generative artificial intelligence into its customer operations and into its back office functions to drive efficiencies, making it a pioneer among its rival fintechs.
Going forward, Daniel Foggo says the next decade for Plenti will be about driving scale to become not only a much larger business, but a trusted and household brand for Australian consumers.
Adam Bennett not only supports the former CEO’s vision. He believes the fifth stage of his corporate career will be his best.
“We have got a highly engaged, clever and productive workforce that basically brings to life the best of loan origination for financial services products for our customers, and we have the deepest integrations with selected business partners. All of that is built on our proprietary technology,” he says.
“Going forward we will deliver that at scale and profitably, while also providing great job opportunities for our people and experiences for our customers. So I think it is a pretty exciting time.”
About Plenti Group Ltd (ASX: PLT)
Plenti Group Limited engages in the fintech lending and investment business in Australia. The company offers personal, car, renovation, wedding, legal fee, motorcycle, funeral, education, jet ski, moving costs, and dental loans; green, holiday, debt consolidation, and EV loans, as well as engages in auto refinancing activities. It also provides automotive and renewable energy related loans. Plenti Group Limited was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
Board and Management
- Mary C. Ploughman, Chairman & Independent Non-Executive Director
- Susan Margaret Forrester, Non-Executive Director
- Stephen Roy Benton, Non-Executive Director
- Daniel Foggo, Co-Founder, Non-Executive Director
- Peter William-Edward Behrens, Non-Executive Director
- Adam Bennet, CEO
- Miles Drury, CFO
- Glenn Riddell, Co-Founder
- Ben Milson, Co-Founder
- Simon Cordell
- Georgina Koch, General Counsel
