Intueri Education Group rose 16 per cent in its NZX debut after owner Arowana International spun off the private training school operator about a year after its own listing on the ASX through a reverse takeover.
The shares first traded at $2.63 after being sold in an initial public offering at $2.35, and were recently at $2.72, giving the company a market value of $272 million. That values Arowana's remaining 24.9 per cent holding at $67.7 million. By lunchtime 8.9 million shares of the company had changed hands, for a value of $242 million.
"It's been a relatively successful listing but pretty much all the activity has been large lines of stock so it really has been the institutions buying and selling the stock," said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton Hindin Greene, which didn't buy any Intueri shares. "It's a new industry that has come onto the market obviously it does give some fund managers some diversification into a new business type. I would have to say I may be a little bit surprised to see it trade as actively as it has on the first day and at the level it has traded."
Intueri is set to become New Zealand's largest private training establishment by domestic students, with 6,000 local enrollments and a further 1,000 international students each year, across 26 locations. It also owns half of Online Courses Australia. After listing, Intueri has said it will look to expand in the private education sector in New Zealand and its Australian online education business.
Massey University chancellor and former Landcorp chief executive Chris Kelly is chairman of the company.
