Unicorn tamer, Laurence Escalante an interesting backer? [see...

Unicorn tamer, Laurence Escalante an interesting backer? [see here] [and here]
.......And a real bell?


https://thewest.com.au/business/wa-internet-float-pentanet-racks-up-stunning-debut-ng-b881781311z

Meet WA’s newest tech multi-millionaire, Pentanet founder Stephen Cornish

Sean SmithThe West Australian
Fri, 29 January 2021 7:20PM


Pentanet Founder & CEO Stephen Cornish, (glasses) & Tim Cornish, Executive Director of Pentanet. Credit: Ross Swanborough/The West Australian

The Perth gamer who sold his house to start a high-speed Internet provider has been vindicated by a stunning share market debut that has catapulted him into the ranks of WA’s multi-millionaires.

Shares in Stephen Cornish’s Pentanet debuted at three times their issue price today before giving up ground to close 34¢, or 136 per cent, up at 59¢. The bumper debut values Mr Cornish’s 18.8 per cent stake of 49.5 million shares at $29.3m.

The float was a family affair, with brother and executive director Tim Cornish and parents Peter and Susan Cornish also in the money, with 12.05 million ($7.2m) and 18.2 million ($10.7m) shares respectively.

“It feels like my wedding day,” Stephen Cornish said.
“It shows the market is probably beginning to understand the depth of the technology we’re going to be deploying.
A big part of our journey has been an education piece around alternative technology.
“It’s the first time in our history we’ve been as well capitalised.
We’ve done what we’ve done in the last four years on the equivalent of the smell of an oily rag, but now we’re in a listed environment I think people are going to really see how disruptive we’re going to be.”

Pentanet raised $22.5 million from an initial public offer in December to fund growth of its 5G fixed-wireless network.

Mr Cornish launched the business just four years ago, initially funding it from the proceeds of the sale of his Woodvale home.

A keen gamer, he had become frustrated by the poor internet speeds and set out to find a solution.

He found it in high-bandwidth fixed-wireless technology, selling his house to raise the cash to build the first of a network of 40 telecommunications towers covering about half of Perth.

Over the following three years, Pentanet raised a further $11 million from private backers including veteran director Dalton Gooding, one of its five board members.
Mr Gooding has 2.75m shares worth $1.6m at yesterday’s close, along with 3.7 million options exercisable at between 13¢ and 50¢ apiece out until 2024.

Pentanet’s pre-float disclosures revealed that Laurence Escalante, the head of Perth gaming company Virtual Gaming Worlds, is also a shareholder with $4.7m of stock.
Billionaire Melbourne investor Alex Waislitz’s private group Thorney went into the float with 9 million shares.


As well as offering high-speed Internet services, Pentanet also re-sells fixed-line services such as NBN where its wireless is not available.

Subscriber numbers soared 218 per cent over last financial year. As of September, the company had over 8200 unique subscribers.

Of the $22.5m Pentanet raised, about $10.5m will be used to expand its fixed-wireless network and roll out new 5G technology developed by Facebook.
This will allow Pentanet to join households without line of sight to a telecommunications tower with those that do have line of sight, creating an innovative “mesh” network.

Funds will also be used to bring cloud gaming services to Australia through a partnership with NASDAQ-listed firm NVIDIA, one of the world’s biggest producers of specialised graphic gaming chips.

The venture will allow its gamer subscribers to play the most demanding games across nearly any laptop or android mobile device.

Pentanet is chaired by David Buckingham — chief executive of WA Internet success story iiNet when it was sold to TPG for $1.6 billion six years ago.