TRE Financial Services Holdings, LLC
Company Overview:
TRE is a diversified holding company focused on financial products and services. Led by its CEO, Andy Priest, TRE currently has two subsidiaries, TranDotCom Solutions ("TranDot") and CUTS Performance Marketing ("CUTS"). TranDot provides transaction processing and loan management software to the short-term lending industry and CUTS provides tax preparation and small business products through marketing programs with over 1,000 credit unions. The Company’s third (and largest) subsidiary, IntelliTax Software Solutions ("IntelliTax"), a provider of software and transaction processing to the tax preparation industry, was sold to a strategic buyer in October 2008.
Transaction Background:
The Platform team knew TRE’s Founder and CEO, Andy Priest for a number of years prior to making our investment. We followed the growth and success of the Company and had various discussions about a potential investment. In 2007, we made an investment in TRE to facilitate the acquisition of TranDot while also providing partial liquidity for the previous owners.
In 2008, IntelliTax was approached by a strategic buyer, Wolters Kluwer, to gauge interest in acquiring the Company. Although it was earlier than anticipated, TRE and Platform felt Wolters Kluwer was the right buyer and decided to sell IntelliTax in October 2008, generating a strong return and liquidity event for the TRE management team and Platform.
