KEY POINTS:
Software company Xero Live is seeking to raise up to $18 million in the first solely New Zealand listed float on the stock exchange this year.
The Wellington company is the brainchild of software entrepreneur Rod Drury - who last year sold his email storage company AfterMail to US software maker Quest for more than $60 million.
Xero Live is a web-based accounting software product aimed at small-to-medium-sized businesses.
The company is seeking to raise $15 million with the provision to take $3 million more in oversubscriptions. The shares will be valued at $1 each.
Drury - who will be Xero's chief executive - said that until now the company had been putting its resources into building the product and proving it worked.
"Now to exploit the opportunity we need to really gas up the operational side of the business."
By enabling businesses to maintain real-time daily accounting, the Xero system took the pain out of the process, Drury said.
New Zealanders were small business experts so the aim was to prove the product in the local market and then sell it abroad.
"This is a global opportunity that we can credibly take from New Zealand. We really do understand how small businesses work and the sort of issues our small businesses have are the same as the UK and Australia."
The capital would be used to establish the business in New Zealand, do market research and take the first steps towards setting up sales and marketing teams in Australia and Britain.
The plan was to be selling in Britain and Australia as early as next year.
Xero is chaired by Phil Norman. Graham Shaw, Guy Haddleton and Trade Me founder Sam Morgan, are the other independent directors. First NZ Capital is the organising broker.
Of the share offer, the independent directors will take $1.35 million, strategic partners and other investors $5 million and the rest will be on offer to First NZ Capital clients and to the public by application.
Drury said it was an early stage business and the company was looking for investors who understood that.
The minimum application is for 1000 shares, and thereafter in multiples of 500 shares.
The offer closes at 5pm on May 30 and Xero expects that its shares will be quoted on the main board of NZX from June 5 this year.
