Tim Boreham
Criterion Columnist
Melbourne https://plus.google.com/116956110402704936193
Share chart. Source: TheAustralian The first Silicon Valley-based tech start-up to list on the ASX has maintained its status as the bourse’s most successful recent IPO, after placating fears of a mass selldown by the original investors who came out of share escrow on Friday.
Shares in 1-Page, a cloud- based recruitment house, soared to a high of $5.44 after listing at 20c apiece a year ago, a gain of 2600 per cent. But the shares last week swooned to a low of $4.30 ahead of Friday’s expiry of the escrow period, when 15 million of the 140 million shares on issue were able to be sold. A further 40 million shares come out of escrow in October next year.
As it happened, only 2.9 million of Friday’s liberated shares hit the market and were absorbed via a block trade at $4.10 a share, facilitated by Canaccord Genuity.
The news sent the shares up 45c to $4.75, delivering an instant 16 per cent windfall to the new holders of the shares, a mix of local and offshore institutions.
The remaining 10 million shares are held largely by 1-Page’s co-founders, entrepreneur and former FBI agent Joanna Weidenmiller and her father Patrick Riley.
“My shares have been re-escrowed and neither my father nor I have any intention of selling,’’ Ms Weidenmiller said yesterday.
Other 1-Page major holders (and board members) are former Seven Network chief executive Maureen Plavsic and former PepsiCo international HR supremo James Rueff.
Now valued at $700 million, 1-Page is seeking to disrupt the traditional recruiting system with an online method that enables large companies to source new talent through referrals from existing employees. As the name implies, job candidates are encouraged to provide a one-page pitch tailored to the role, rather than a generic resume.
1-Page claims to have signed up seven large clients, including Amazon, Red Bull, Fitness First and accounting firm Accenture. The company expects to have 125 paying clients by the end of the year, with up to 30 converted to more lucrative contracts.
While the company generated only $400,000 of sales in the year to January 2015, Canaccord forecasts $6.7m of sales this year and $76m in 2016. “We have never had high expectations of significant revenue or cashflows this financial year,’’ analyst Chris Northwood said. “We have been pretty conservative.’’
While Canaccord values 1-Page at $6.39 a share, investment newsletter Motley Fool is more wary that 1-Page is currently unprofitable and trades on more than 1000 times sales.
“That means a lot needs to go right for the company in order for shareholders to see a return on their investment at current prices,’’ it said.