Mooring Systems reaches new high without fanfare

Mooring Systems shares hit a new high of $5 on Friday, but managing director Peter Montgomery was too busy to notice his company's shares had cracked another milestone.

The shares have risen 10-fold in slightly more than three years, after listing at 50c in December 2002.

Montgomery, 39, came up with the idea of building a vacuum system to take the hazard out of mooring ships to shore after seeing a crewman killed 20 years ago while working as a ship's officer.

The idea has proved a winner, with the first units being used around the world and interest from a number of potential customers, including the United States Navy.

But the company is still in its early stages, having made only a small, $12,000, profit, and is set to make a loss in the first half of the year.

Montgomery owns 21 per cent of the company, and his personal fortune has grown from $4.9 million a year ago when the shares were at $1.85, to a little over $13 million.

He said he had been busy yesterday working and had not paid any attention to the share price.

"Goodness," he said when he heard the company was now worth almost $63 million, before explaining that, under stock exchange rules, he could not comment further on the price.

Forsyth Barr's branch manager Peter Wardell said the share price rally was driven purely by supply and demand, and that the market had a positive perception of the tightly held issue.

Friday's trading volume was low, but sellers were being "canny" by maximising their profit-taking opportunities, he said.

"There's a seller at $4.95 and a few at $5 but there's a whole raft of people who want to buy."

- NZPA