JTH Holding, the parent of tax chain Liberty Tax Service has filed documents with the SEC to prepare for a public offering. The form was filed to register securities so they can be publicly traded, but the company has not yet reported the number of shares that will be offered or given any estimate of the amounts to be raised. A brief note on the use of proceeds shows that some will be invested in its bank product program
Last year, JTH postponed an initial public offering and began reporting as a publicly held company after determining that the number of shareholders it had required it to do so. The company said at that time it would come to market later to raise capital. JTH is controlled by CEO
John Hewitt whose 900 shares of Class B stock give him the power to elect all members of the company's board of directors. The offering is expected to include shares of class A shares by the company and by selling shareholders.
The SEC form says that the proceeds will be used for "general corporate purposes, including support of our franchisees and the facilitation of customer financial products." The latter probably refers to the Instant Cash Advance program that Liberty tested during the 2012 tax season and is redesigned to meet some of the demand left by the demise of Refund Anticipation Loans.
With federal regulators hostile to RALs, companies such as Liberty are exploring the use of lending institutions that are not federally regulated as a source of funds. For the year ended April 30, Liberty says its lender issued $46 million in ICAs with Liberty purchasing $1.1 million of the amount that was past due.
