NZ jetpack maker close to listing liftoff

The recreational version of the Martin P12 jetpack will have a sale price of $200,000.

New Zealand jetpack maker Martin Aircraft Company will become a publicly traded firm when it lists on the Australian stock exchange tomorrow.

The Christchurch-based business raised more than A$27 million through an oversubscribed initial public offering (IPO), which will primarily be used to commercialise its flying machine, the brainchild of Kiwi inventor Glenn Martin who began the project in his garage in 1981.

Shares were priced in the IPO at A40c each and the company will trade on the ASX under the ticker symbol MJP.

Martin Aircraft's cornerstone investor, Hong Kong-listed KuangChi Science, snapped up 52.5 million of the shares, representing a A$21 million investment.

KuangChi, which will invest another A$23 million to A$29 million in the jetpack maker over the next 30 months, now owns 27.8 per cent of the company. Glenn Martin and pre-IPO investor No 8 Ventures' shareholdings have reduced to 15.9 per cent and 19.2 per cent, respectively.

The company was last year touting 40 pre-orders for its jetpacks, representing $6 million in sales.

Chief executive Peter Coker said the firm expected to begin deliveries of its First Responder aircraft - developed for police, search and rescue and other government uses - during the second half of 2016.

The jetpack, which can fly for over 30 minutes at up to 74 km/h, has approval for manned flight only in New Zealand at present. Coker said a division in the company was working with other countries to gain regulatory clearance for the aircraft.

Martin Aircraft is close to completing the development of a ballistic parachute for the jetpack, he added.

"With the ballistic parachute, this could well be the safest aircraft in the world."

The company, which made a net loss of $3 million in its last financial year, is targeting a sale price of US$150,000 ($200,000) for the recreational version of the jetpack.