Thursday, July 31, 2014

There is funding for Australian Innovation

Many software companies from around the world look to list in the USA - as that is where markets and valuations are 

However

the Australian ASX and other Exchanges around the world are becoming viable options.... 

Positive news for innovative companies that have commercial opportunities!!

Both Atlassian and Xero (Xero currently listed in Oz and NZ , may  go ahead with plans for a United States listing, and the  Baker & McKenzie Cross-Border IPO Index indicates that  the number of companies listing on foreign exchanges is rising sharply.

Australia was a stand-out performer ,  with one of its strongest half-year performances in the past decade.

Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie has promoted the ASX as a home for Australian technology companies seeking access to public markets. He listed Freelancer on the ASX last November.

Keep your eyes open for the IPO of Chinese online retailer Alibaba Group in New York in the pipeline.

The biggest winner was North America, with companies raising $US7.9 billion in 27 cross-border IPOs in North American exchanges in the first half of 2014, a 274 per cent increase year on year. The lion’s share went to Nasdaq, with $US5.8 billion raised in 18 cross-border IPOs. The biggest listing was China-based JD.

In the Asia Pacific, the Hong Kong stock exchange dominated with $US6.1 billion in 35 cross-border IPOs, led by the listing of China-based Harbin Bank . 

“Resources companies have traditionally gone to the US, Toronto or London,” Frank Castiglia from Bajer and Mckenzie told BRW 

 “For technology the heartland is still the US and it’s having an investor base which understands the companies and attributes appropriate value and also being close to the customer base as well.”

" Companies that deploy technology for their basic business model, like Freelancer or Virtus where technology is part of but not the dominant feature, the ASX is a very viable and helpful option,” Castiglia says.

“One of the things that makes [the ASX] very attractive to many companies and particularly early-stage companies is the listing rules and the flexibility around that. Companies at an early stage, for example, can list under the assets test so they don’t need a profit track record, so getting on the exchange is relatively easy compared with the rest of the world. And also you’ve got very good listing rules to facilitate further capital raising, probably the best in the world.”

For inbound IPOs, Castiglia says the ASX has traditionally attracted resources company listings, but more recently has proven attractive for foreign life sciences and biotechnology firms such as US-based companies, Osprey Medical and GI Dynamics.

Castiglia says globally exchanges are looking at facilitating more dual listings and should consider fast-track procedures, such as those of AIM, the secondary exchange in London.

For more info on how to find VC - call us 

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Venture Capital in Australia seems to be the flavour of the month

Venture Capitalist, former Microsoft executive Daniel Petre and Craig Blair , chairman at social TV start-up Beamly and former Expedia Australia, closed their $60m new fund, AirTree Ventures Fund.

In 1997, Mr Petre started ecorp for Kerry Packer’s PBL with $30 million capital, floating the subsidiary six years later for $385 million.

He then teamed up with Mr Blair and former eBay Australia managing director Alison Deans to form netus, a $40 million fund half-owned by News Corp, producing an internal rate of return of 63 per cent on investments.

AirTree will look to invest $2 million to $5 million in about 15 businesses across the fund over 3 years. 

“In netus, we did nine investments, seven of them returned between three and 22 times, and only two didn’t make money, so that is the kind of rigorous approach we will take now.”

Airtree are looking for businesses that demonstrated signs of traction in the market, and said they could sit in any number of sectors from e-commerce, media, retail and financial services, through to education and health. 


Other VC Funds include
- OneVentures started raising $100 million 
- Blackbird Ventures 
- Square Peg Capital  - Bassat, Liberman and Packer fund 
- Montech listed fund - David Shein and Geoff Levy's recently listed fund merging the skills of Monash and Comtech!!
- telstra's Muru-d - run by Mick 
- and then there is Fishburners - who have just done a deal with Google 

And it looks as if their will be more coming to the table!!! Watch this space .

Hitech and startups  seems to be an interesting space at the moment!!


Saturday, July 12, 2014

Con Georgiou - One Million Acts of Innovation - Book now for Aug 15

Our BSI Connect Entrepreneurs and Innovators Forum together with Referron were fortunate to have had Con Georgiou give a keynote at our Friday on "one million acts of innovation" and what his vision is to transform Australia into a leading innovation nation over the next 5 years! 
Listen to some gems!! 

Con has agreed to present again at our Friday Entrepreneur Mastermind series on Friday 15 AUgust at 12:30pm - 2pm - Please confirm your tickets for you and your guests by clicking here  

If you are a referron subscriber - type in referron007 in the promo code for your complimentary ticket









A gem that I took out of the seminar! 
  • Low skill , high challenge - stress, tension and anxiety
  • High skill - low challenge - boredom 
  • When you increase your level of skill, and are prepared to take a challenge - that is when you get innovation, inspiration, creativity 

Con has agreed to join us again and present  on Friday 15 August  from  12:30pm - 2 pm 


Con  Co-founded Velteo which focused on integrating culture with process and technology for sales and service improvement. Velteo received industry awards, deployed projects to some of the largest organisations in the country and gained international attention which ultimately helped him reach an exit 4 years later when he sold the company to an overseas competitor. Velteo's high performance culture was recognised as second to none and was the critical element to its success.
Con Georgio is an Angel, Coach and Speaker. Co-founder and CEO One Million Acts of Innovation, and Flow Engine

 I am certain you will have a few golden nuggets that you will take home with you!

See you on Friday... be sure to register here . And feel free to bring potential clients and potential referron advocates!


( ps.. be sure to use referron to refer someone to a business that you know like and trust today)

Could ASX hit 6000 by dec? Buybacks on the cards? WHat are the top 6 ASX stocks to buy?

Extracts From afr

Investors could be in for a string of share buybacks from the likes of Telstra Corporation,Seven West Media and CSL, with Credit Suisse arguing improving cashflows and “the lowest cost of debt in a generation” have companies primed to give back to shareholders.


After successfully weathering “savage” macro headwinds in the three months to June 30 – including the collapse of the iron ore price, the rise of the Australian dollar and sluggish global growth – analysts are predicting a 6000 share market by the end if the year.
With cashflow growing and the “Australian credit market . . . providing a pre-tax cost of debt somewhere between 3.5 per cent and 5 per cent”, Credit Suisse argues companies are well placed to pursue buybacks that can boost earnings.
  1. Telstra, which is widely expected to launch a $2 billion buyback when it reports its full-year earnings.
  2. Seven West could launch a buyback at current prices,
  3. Salary packaging firm McMillan Shakespeare is a prime candidate if its share price remains depressed.
  4. Engineering group Downer EDI could also do a buyback, although Credit Suisse noted the company preferred acquisitions.
  5. Automotive Holdings Group, which owns around 100 car dealerships in the country, was another candidate at its current low valuation.
  6. CSL to launch another buyback during earnings season.

 Credit Suisse has tracked a basket of ASX stocks that have bought back more than 2 per cent of their shares and found that since 2006 the basket returned 21 per cent, compared to 6 per cent for the ASX 200 Accumulation Index.
Buyback stocks tend to 
  1. generate much more free cash - a favourite metric for many investors
  2.  signal that managements are attempting to beat their cost of capital.

Credit Suisse has forecast the ASX 200 will end the year at 6000 points, up from the current level of 5465.
This story originally appeared at afr.com.au



Monday, July 07, 2014

Food For Thought - Talent Management is Dead!!

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Peter Niemandt's hour of power


Our Entrepreneurs and Innovators Forum together with Referron were fortunate to have Peter Niemandt give a keynote on Friday 11 July .

Testing the boundaries has always been the driving force for Peter Niemandt – In both his personal and business life! 
He has inspired sales teams around the world in both Fortune 500 Companies and SMEs outperform, setting challenging goals, overcoming the fear of failure and then coaching them to achieve great things.

 In his spare time Peter has obtained his PPL (helicopters), completed the Comrades Marathon (86 kms) twice and the South African Iron Man three times. 
He has been part of a five man squad that undertook an ultra marathon relay (640kms) to raise money for a worthy cause, has climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, circumnavigated the island of Pemba (Zanzibar, East Africa) in a sea kayak, and walked the Kokoda Track as well as “a few other things…”

To further illustrate his illustrious life to date, Peter’s book “Things I learnt about immigrating to another Planet” is a humorous but astute commentary on “starting all over again” in a new country.

Peter is nothing short of an inspiration!





Steve Fearns - in the top 3 finalists as trainer of the year awards - June 14!

Our leadership and management trainer and guru Steve Fearns - in the top 3 finalists as trainer of the year awards .  What a great achievement - well done Steve and BSI Learning!!!