Peter Yates, the former CEO of Kerry Packer’s PBL, has finally revealed what he’s going to do with millions of dollars raised from the public and some well-heeled supporters at the Allco Equity Partners cash box – he’s bidding for control of Baycorp Advantage, a company that makes its money out of credit reference checks and chasing ordinary folk for bad debts.

It’s a long way from the high flying days at Packer and previously, at Macquarie Bank, where he was an adviser to people making bids.

At the Millionaire Factory, Yates was known for his expertise in gambling and gambling related stocks, which is why James Packer hired him to replace Nick Falloon at PBL.

Yates left from PBL June last year with $10 million in payments, and shares and loans from PBL worth millions more. He moved to run Allco Equity Partners when David Coe’s Allco Group of Sydney joined with the Liberman interests of Melbourne to establish the cash box.

Now Allco has raided and launched a hostile $470 million bid for Baycorp Advantage that will give Allco Equity a 58% of the company if successful. Here’s a report on Yates’s first big deal as a corporate investor.

It’s good to see that Yates hasn’t fully cut all ties with Packerdom, the spinners to the Allco raid are Cosway, with Mark Rudder the contact. Mark Westfield from Cosway (and formerly with The Australian) does work for PBL. A happy circle!

Allco Equity shares hit a low of $1.35 in June but have recovered nicely to $1.50 yesterday, a 12% rise in a month. But they are still well under the $2 issue price. The $6 shares are partly paid to $2, with a second $2 contribution due in December.