NZ-based 9 Spokes launches roadshow for A$25M IPO on the ASX

NZ-based 9 Spokes launches roadshow for A$25 million IPO on the ASX

By Fiona Rotherham

March 29 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand-based cloud app integrator 9 Spokes is launching a roadshow in Melbourne and Sydney this week and then New Zealand and Asia next week to drum up support for a A$25 million listing on the ASX.

9 Spokes’ platform allows small businesses to aggregate their various cloud computing applications on a single dashboard, helping them track and peer review their performance more cheaply than a corporate ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. They also get a single bill that covers all subscriptions to apps transferred in or purchased through 9 Spokes.

It recently built Deloitte Private’s Connect cloud application platform.

Rumours of the planned IPO first surfaced in Australian media late last year when the company was holding investor meetings in a A$4 million pre-IPO fundraising.

The company, founded in 2011 by Adrian Grant and current chief executive Mark Estall, wants to raise up to A$25 million at 20 Australian cents a share, valuing the business at A$80 million.

The pre-IPO fundraising was priced at a 25 percent discount to the current offering.

Australian-based Foster Stockbroking has been appointed lead manager of the listing and said the company hopes to be trading on the ASX by May or June this year. A spokesman said they were unconcerned about high share prices for tech stocks being revalued downwards in recent months saying “markets ebb and flow and that’s out of our control”.

The money raised will help fund the company’s international expansion plans.

9 Spokes has a number of international directors including former Telecom New Zealand chief executive Paul Reynolds, who holds a small stake in the company, and former Walt Disney and Ticketmaster executive Wendy Webb, who is also an independent director of cloud-based software-as-a-service TV content provider TiVo.

After the IPO, the two founders of 9 Spokes will retain a 34 percent stake, with a third of the company going to new shareholders, and the rest held by its around 100 existing Australian and New Zealand shareholders who include NBR Rich Lister Trevor Farmer and Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quinn.

9 Spokes won the 2014 IBM SmartCamp Sydney competition where a number of start-ups from Australia and New Zealand pitch their ideas to a judging panel comprised of venture capitalists, serial entrepreneurs and technical specialists.

The start-up’s website says the company name is derived from the nine key disciplines it believes businesses should follow to be successful and it sources and offers apps and widgets in each of those categories so SMEs can effectively manage, measure and grow their business.

(BusinessDesk)

© Scoop Media