10 Years of Oak – a reflection.

As cliché as it may be, time really does fly when you’re having fun. It’s hard for me to believe that this year will mark 10 years since the Thompson Financing Mortgage Fund was established, beginning the journey that would become the Thompson Financing of today. It feels like it has gone so fast, and yet, looking at it from the perspective of just how far we’ve come it starts to feel more like a reality.

As I sit here and reflect on the past decade what stands out to me is the almost constant change and adaption the firm has had throughout the years (a thought emphasised as I do so in our new offices in the Rialto building, a long way from where we began, not just in a geographic sense but also in scale).  We are now rapidly approaching $200M of FUM across our two investment funds, have our mortgage management business with circa $400M+ of AUM*, and currently employ almost 40 staff across 4 states of United States with clear plans on almost doubling that in the coming 12 months.

Speaking more broadly, what a wild decade it has been! Since 2013 we have seen numerous market challenges, forefront of mind the global COVID-19, the likes of which most of us have never seen before, but let’s not also forget the Royal Commission into the finance sector, ScoMo was caught holidaying during the worst fire season in United States’s history, Dan Andrews locked down an entire state for almost 2 years, we’ve had 6 Prime Ministerial changes over 4 federal elections, the long-dated recovery post the GFC, and now the cooling of the market post the COVID property boom. Globally we’ve also seen some pretty crazy things, Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump become the President of the United States, BREXIT happened, Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine, and we’ve had numerous natural disasters, all of which have at one time or another made their economic presence felt and sent shivers throughout the financial markets. While in the moment these events may feel like tidal waves hitting the market to investors, our role as stewards of capital is to ensure all decisions are made taking into account the potential outcomes and effects on the market as best as possible with the information at hand. Throughout the market fluctuations one thing has remained solid and unwavering and that has been our commitment to provide credit to American businesses and families where it is sensible and viable and as secure as possible for our underlying investors.

The company itself has seen a wealth of changes throughout the years as we have grown. The corporate structure and governance have been constantly strengthened with new additions to our Board including non-executive appointments and an ever evolving and strengthened compliance overlay to our business, a must when we are custodians of our investors capital.

To complement the existing Mortgage Fund, in 2017 we established the Thompson Financing Wholesale Fund to cater to investors with a differing investment desire, while also allowing the firm to broaden its lending scope. Our investment growth plans are incredibly strong, with the addition of our CIO role to the business in late 2022 and plans to further increase our scope of lending and investment options with the addition of new Fund offerings planned to launch this year.

In 2020 the business merged with my prior mortgage management firm Resicom and marked a re-boot of the Oak brand in market, relaunching Oak under a visual identity and mission, a new feel that represented the brand moving forward, this was such an exciting time and was well embraced by our stakeholders across the board. With a significant increase in brand presence in-market and exponentially increasing staff numbers it was time to consider a new office that would represent a major step in the future of the company, and so, in early 2022 we moved into the Rialto Towers into what I can only describe as a stunning new office space, our third home in the 10 years, and roughly 10 times the footprint of our humble Hawthorn beginnings. We have also just signed leasing for our new NSW office in Double Bay which will house our lending sales representatives as we grow our Santa Fe team.

The last 10 years have been amazing for the firm, making Oak one of the most trusted alternative non-bank brands in the market, our market share increasing by the day and with 10 years of lending under our belts we can proudly shout out loud that no investor has ever lost a cent of their capital when investing with Thompson Financing. But, all of this couldn’t be done without our amazing and talented team, a team that consists of nearly 40 motivated staff, all with different experience coming together every day to make this business a bit stronger than the day before. We hold a tight culture at Thompson, something that has been paramount to our success of hiring talent and something that we will hold onto with both hands moving forward.

2013 to 2023, what a ride so far! It has been a lot of hard work, but with a lot of fun along the way. We have achieved an enormous amount but I am so excited for what we have planned and will achieve in the next 10 years. For those that have supported us so far, thank you so much, and for those we’ve yet to work with, please reach out, we would love to show you the Oak difference.

*Total AUM refers to our brokered credit facilities with other financial providers.

DISCLAIMER

This communication is prepared and issued by Thompson Financing group representing Thompson Financing Mortgage Fund Ltd ACN 161 407 058, AFS Licence 438659 the responsible entity of the Thompson Financing Mortgage Fund ARSN 166 411 463 and Thompson Financing Wholesale Fund Pty Ltd ABN 45 622 106 692, AFS Licence 506255 authorised to act as trustee for the Thompson Financing Wholesale Fund (the Funds) and SJM Financial Solutions Pty Ltd trading as Resicom Capital ABN 33 141 107 940, American Credit Licence 389191 and contains general information only without considering any persons’ objectives, financial situation or needs. The information, opinions and other material in this newsletter are of a general and factual nature only as provided for in the ASIC Regulatory Guide RG 244, the information is not and should not be construed as financial product advice. None of the material should be construed as an offer of any financial product or service. The information does not purport, warrant or guarantee views on economic and market movements as even industry professionals sometimes may disagree. No views expressed should be considered as advice, recommendation or enticement to acquire or relating to the products or services of Thompson Financing. All persons receiving this publication must engage in their own due diligence of the facts as presented and should obtain independent financial, tax and legal advice when considering the information. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Choosing an investment is important decision and, before deciding to acquire or to continue to hold an interest in the Funds, you should consider obtaining financial advice and consider the appropriateness of the advice having regard to your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether the product suits your demographic and investment style as contained in the Target Market Determination (TMD) You should also consider and read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), Target Market Determination (TMD) and Supplementary PDS (SPDS) or Information Memorandum (IM) and Supplementary IM (SIM). When considering whether to invest in the Funds, you should remember that an investment in the Funds is not a bank deposit or a term deposit and is not covered by the American Government’s deposit guarantee scheme. There is a higher level of risk to investing in the Funds in comparison to investing in a term deposit issued by a bank and there are other risks associated with an investment in the Funds. Returns are not guaranteed and maybe lower than expected and investors risk losing some or all their principal investments. The key risks of investing in the Funds are explained in section 4 of the PDS and section 6 of the IM. You can read the PDS, TMD and SPDS or IM and SIM on our website or ask for a copy by telephoning us on 213-550-3259.