Dotcom firm heads for listing

Kim Dotcom's wife, Mona, owns 26 per cent of the business. Photo / Michael Craig

The technology company started by Kim Dotcom is heading for the New Zealand sharemarket with a valuation of $210 million.

It was revealed yesterday that online storage service Mega wants to get on the NZX through a back-door listing.

Back-door listings - in which an already listed company buys the assets of another company - are often used by smaller companies to get on to the stock exchange.

Dotcom is not a director of Mega, but started it last year on the anniversary of the police raid on his Coatesville mansion.

His wife, Mona, owns 26 per cent of the business through a corporate trustee company.

A tiny NZX company, called TRS Investments, plans to merge with Mega to allow it to list.

TRS will acquire all of Mega's shares for $210 million, and Mega's shareholders will be issued 700 million new TRS shares.

After the transaction, Mega's existing shareholders will hold 99 per cent of TRS shares.

TRS will change its name to Mega after the deal, which shareholders are still to approve.

Mega chief executive Stephen Hall said it was hoped the merger would be finished by the end of May.

"It's obviously been part of the Mega strategy for a long time to become listed," he said.

"There's so much interest in Mega within New Zealand and globally, and investors are keen to be part of the story and keen to invest."