About 6,000 small and medium-sized businesses have benefited from the flotation of Australian business management software developer MYOB, which gave a priority application to them as its customers. Following the company’s listing, more than 70% of its shareholders are also its customers.
Subscribers to the IPO last week were able to buy the shares at an issue price of A$2, but the market quickly drove the price up to nearly A$5 after the shares were listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The customers who had subscribed received 579 shares each for A$1,158 ($765) which were worth A$2,837 ($1,577) by close of business on Tuesday.
MYOB was founded in 1991 and since then has developed a customer base of around 350,000 in 11 countries. Its products are accountancy packages for small enterprises, with a special edition for each different country to take into account local factors such as goods and services taxes.
Following the listing, MYOB chief executive and founder Craig Winkler was quick to try and distance the company from internet stocks whose market capitalization have shot sky high. It is true we are a technology company, but what we really do is use software as a tool to help small business. This does not involve rocket science algorithms, he said.
