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Sealegs - the stock market minnow which was the butt of broker jokes when it listed in 2003 - has earned the respect of Fisher Funds, one of New Zealand's most successful investment firms.
Shares in the maker of amphibious vehicles rose 10 per cent yesterday on news that Fisher Funds is taking a strategic stake in the company.
Institutional investor Fisher Funds has been issued with 1.7 million new shares. The issue was placed at 58c per share, representing a 2.7 per cent stake.
Sealegs shares rose 6c to an all-time high of 62c in afternoon trading.
Sealegs chief executive David McKee Wright said he was "very pleased" to have Fisher Funds on board.
Sealegs International, the manufacturing arm of the company, has developed a patent-pending system of hydraulically motorised, steerable and retractable wheels for amphibious boats.
Its boat set a new world record for the fastest crossing of the English Channel by an amphibious vehicle in June 2005.
The company last month sold 12 boats, representing more than $1 million in sales, at the Auckland International Boat Show.
Sealegs came on to the NZX by moving into the shell left by tech company ITCapital.
Fisher Funds chief investment officer Warren Couillault said he had been monitoring the development of Sealegs over the past two years and was impressed with recent progress.
Sealegs was experiencing burgeoning demand which would increase the scale of its production.
Couillault said: "This is likely to increase the quality of the product and its marketability.
"There is every prospect of a significant increase in sales volume over the next three-to-five years, and a commensurate lift in profits."
Fisher Funds has approximately $1 billion in funds under management for more than 20,000 investors.
It holds strategic stakes in high-growth stocks such as Rakon, Pumpkin Patch, Mainfreight and Delegats.
- additional reporting NZPA
