Aussie gains Kiwi BrainZ

Investors wanting a piece of Auckland medical technology company BrainZ Instruments will have to look across the Tasman once the company begins trading on the Australian Stock Exchange tomorrow.

Chief executive Justin Vaughan said in an ideal world the company would have listed here.

"When comparing New Zealand and Australia there just seemed to be much larger institutional and private investor networks that were interested in putting their money into early mid-stage medical technology companies," he said.

The listing was fully oversubscribed and will raise A$13 million ($13.8 million), giving the company a market capitalisation of A$30 million ($32 million). New Zealand parent company Tru-Test will retain a 57 per cent holding.

Vaughan said the majority of the new capital would be spent on developing sales and support operations in the US and UK, which would be used as a hub for further European expansion.

BrainZ will remain based in Auckland, although as international commercial operations expand more sales and market focus will be placed in Europe and the US.

The company will open an office in Maryland on the US east coast in January and is looking to set up a London office within six months.

"It's really about driving sales rather than most of the funding going into investment in new research and development."

A couple of million would be spent developing technology originally designed to detect brain injury in newborn babies for use on adult patients.

Since Tru-Test fully acquired BrainZ in July 2002, the company has not posted a profit.