Labour firm makes NZX debut

Simon Hull

Labour hire company Allied Work Force made its sharemarket debut yesterday - the main board's first listing for the year.

Shares in the company traded at $1.52 in the opening minutes but ended the day back at its initial public offer price of $1.50.

Celebrating at the company's Penrose headquarters as the market opened, managing director Simon Hull said the listing was the start of a new phase for the company which had raised cash to help it expand.

The firm has a market capitalisation of just under $40 million.

Its initial public offer of 7.6 million shares closed fully subscribed on Friday.

Hull, who started the company 17 years ago, has retained a 68 per cent stake, selling down to raise cash for its expansion.

The remaining shares went to company directors, select NZX participants and staff, so yesterday was the first chance for retail investors to get their hands on the stock.

Allied Work Force has 90 full-time staff and a "crew" of around 8000 skilled and semi-skilled workers which it employs to hire to businesses in all areas of blue-collar work, including construction, distribution, manufacturing, processing and infrastructure.

It has 21 regional branches, and is planning four more.

The company previously forecast a March 2006 year net profit of $3.1 million, on revenue of $74.2 million.