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The initial public offer for shares in accounting software company Xero has closed fully subscribed - raising $15 million to help the company to expand in New Zealand.
It will also help to develop new markets in Australia and Britain.
The Wellington company will list on the NZX this Tuesday. It will be the first solely New Zealand traded company to float this year.
Xero was founded by software entrepreneur Rod Drury - who last year sold his email storage company AfterMail to US software maker Quest for more than $60 million.
Its flagship product, Xero Live, is a web-based accounting software product aimed at small-to-medium-sized businesses.
The company had the provision to raise an additional $3 million in oversubscriptions - to take the total capital to $18 million.
But it was decided that $15 million was enough cash to meet its immediate goals and some institutions were scaled back. Shares in the float were valued at $1 each.
Xero had deliberately targeted the float towards financial institutions, recognising that this was a venture-capital-style investment that might not suit the average retail investor, Drury said.
It was exciting to be listing on the NZX, he added.
It might have been possible to raise the capital privately but the IPO was an important part of Xero's overseas growth strategy.
For a new software company trying to attract attention in Britain, being publicly listed provided profile and added credibility, Drury said.
"You just aren't going to sell anything as a small private company on a rock on the South Pacific."
The IPO has given Xero 1167 shareholders.
Founders Drury and Hamish Edwards now have 45 per cent and 13 per cent stakes respectively in the company.
No existing shares were sold in the offer.