Baycorp Advantage Changing Name after Collection Unit Sale

Australasia?s leading provider of business intelligence services Baycorp Advantage today announced it intends to change its name to Veda Advantage, subject to shareholder approval at the company?s Annual General Meeting to be held in October.

Veda Advantage is a combination of ?Veda?, derived from an ancient word for knowledge and rhyming with ?leader?, and ?Advantage?, representing both the competitive benefits customers obtain from leveraging the company?s data and analytics capabilities, as well as a bridge to the company?s history.

The new company logo will feature the ?greater than? mathematical symbol, signifying forward thinking and energy and the company?s value to customers as being ?greater than data?. The new logo will be revealed early next year.

While the new name will be presented to shareholders at the annual general meeting on October 26 for approval, the new brand name will be officially launched early next year.

The Baycorp brand was sold with the Baycorp Advantage Collections Services debt collection business to Trans-Tasman Collections, a consortium including Allco Equity Partners and DB Capital Partners in June.

Baycorp Advantage Managing Director Andrew Want said the new name had been selected following customer and market research and input from the company?s staff.

?It is a name that conveys what our company is all about ? providing unique knowledge, competitive advantage and deep understanding through the integration and analysis of data. These are the benefits our customers access through our data, analytics and business intelligence services,? he said.

?Veda is easy to spell and remember, and will be a great fit for our suite of business intelligence products and services.

?It will also become an easy way of describing credit history searches – as ?Veda checks?.

?The name change is also part of the transformation of the business, and will help us to demonstrate to our customers, our staff and everyone who deals with us that the company they?ve known in the past is now a quite different organisation ? greater than just data and committed to delivering unique value to our customers, opportunities to our people and superior returns for shareholders.

?The sale of the collections business earlier this year has allowed the group to focus on our core business of becoming the leading provider of business intelligence services and solutions in the region.

?We are now exclusively focused on providing data-driven services and solutions in relation to credit and risk and in relation to marketing. This is the future of the business.

?The Baycorp brand was synonymous with debt collection in New Zealand, and had a strong presence in the Australian collections market, so it made sense to include the Baycorp brand in the sale.

?It was a strong selling point for the collections business and selling the name provided the ongoing business with a unique opportunity to project a revitalised image to our customers and investors that reflects the different organisation we are today.

?We?ve tested the name with several high-value customers and they are all very receptive both to the name itself and the changes to the company it symbolises.?

Mr Want said the cost of changing the brand name was estimated at between $2 to $3 million. $1 million has already been provided from the proceeds of the BCS sale and the balance will be funded from ongoing operations.