http://www.copyright link/content/dam/images/g/i/8/o/t/m/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gid2et.png/1437762396445.jpg <img src="/content/dam/images/g/i/8/o/t/m/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gid2et.png/1437762396445.jpg" alt="Reffind co-founder Ben McGrath, left, and Jamie Pride listed the company with a team of 13 in only three months." width="620" height="350" class="lazy620x350"/>
Reffind co-founder Ben McGrath, left, and Jamie Pride listed the company with a team of 13 in only three months.
Possibly the worst day of the year to list on the ASX was Thursday, July 9. And the managing director of human resources-focused technology start-up Reffind, Jamie Pride, knew it.
The ASX 200 had lost 2 per cent in Wednesday's trade, the future of Greece was uncertain, the Chinese sharemarket was crashing and there had been a four-hour outage on the New York Stock Exchange overnight because of a technical glitch.
Had Pride been allowed to push back the listing date on the day he would have, but backing out wasn't an option. A week out from the listing, Pride had sat down with his co-founder Ben McGrath, the team from Foster Stockbroking and listing project manager and former Deloitte partner David Willington to discuss the possibility of delaying the debut.
After 24 hours' consideration, the team unanimously agreed that pushing ahead with the July 9 date was the best option.
It seems they were right. Unfazed by wobbles
Investors were unperturbed by the market's volatility and instead focused on the potential growth in the company's key product, an mobile app that lets employers communicate with their staff on HR issues.
On debut the stock jumped 30 per cent from an issue price of 20¢ to close at 26¢. Two weeks after listing the stock has climbed higher, up almost 80 per cent to trade around 35¢.
But the successful listing wasn't without a herculean effort.
In December 2014, before the Reffind app had even launched on the market, Pride and McGrath started thinking about how to raise capital.
At first the pair did not consider doing an initial public offering and focused on going through the traditional venture capital route. But after observing the market and seeing the success of United States HR tech start-up 1-Page, they started thinking about listing.
But it wasn't until March this year that the ball really started rolling.
The next three months were testing. As a start-up, Reffind was keen to keep costs tight and they had a small team of about 13 people working on the listing, including lawyers and accountants.
Pride worked 14 to 16 hour days for three months, but still wondered if they should have given themselves more time. Leading up to sending the prospectus to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for review, Pride did not sleep for two days and his team lived on its share of takeaway pizza.
Reffind wanted to raise $8 million through a book-build, giving the company a market capitalisation of $20 million on debut. Choice of backers
Pride and the team from Foster Stockbroking embarked on a two-week roadshow through Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
But before the group even left for Asia they had already covered the book, allowing them to take a more strategic approach to the allocation of shares and essentially choose their backers.
Foster Stockbroking founder and chief executive Stuart Foster and executive director of investment banking Mark Hinsley, already knew which institutions would be interested in Reffind because they had also run the IPO for 1-Page.
By the end of the roadshow, investor demand was running at $50 million.
Foster and Hinsley wanted institutional investors to compose anywhere from 60 to 80 per cent of the book and for retail investors to make up the rest.
To narrow down which institutional investors to give the highest allocations, they ranked them based on which were most likely to buy more stock on market and promote Reffind after listing, adding extra value.
For Hinsley and Foster, it was a tried and tested formula. But when the allocation was released Pride was met with a number of angry phone calls.
These calls fell into two groups - friends and family who were sure there had been a mistake, and institutional investors who were confused about why they had not received a bigger chunk of shares.
On listing day Pride and McGrath gathered with their staff, family and friends for a listing ceremony at the ASX in Sydney.
Hinsley was holidaying in Italy at the time but watched the stock intently throughout the day.
Given the shaky market, it exceeded expectations.
A boozy lunch was had at a restaurant on Bridge Street to celebrate the day's success, and the 30th birthday of Matt Wright from NWR Communications, who had run the PR side of things.
But Pride is keeping his feet on the ground. As David Willington told him in an email the night before the listing: "This is not the end of a sprint, this is the start of a marathon."
RFN Price at posting:
34.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)