SYDNEY, Nov. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Freelancer
Limited (Freelancer) (ASX: FLN) today announced the
successful allocation of its Initial Public Offering
(Offer). The Offer was significantly over-subscribed and
closed earlier than anticipated following extremely strong demand
from retail, sophisticated and institutional investors.
Freelancer shares are expected to commence trading on the
Australian Securities Exchange at 12:00pm AEST on Friday 15
November 2013.
Under the Offer, a total of 30 million shares were offered at
$0.50 per share to the general public
(General Offer), and a further 5.1 million shares were
offered at $0.50 per share to
eligible employees under the terms of the Company's Employee Share
Plan1 (Employee Offer). The Offer did not involve
the sale of any existing shares in the Company.
The directors and employees of the Company have indicated their
continued support of the Company. In the General Offer, the
directors collectively acquired over 2 million shares, and the
employees acquired approximately 2 million shares.
At the time of listing Freelancer has over 600 shareholders,
with approximately 90% of shares held by directors, management and
employees2. 87.2% of the shares are voluntarily escrowed
for 12 months.
There are 436 million shares on issue. At the issue price of
$0.50 per share, the Company will
have a market capitalisation on listing of $218 million.
Freelancer welcomes the support from its new retail,
institutional and sophisticated shareholders including Caledonia
Investments (major investor in Zillow, Inc.), JBS Investments,
Cadence Capital, LHC Capital, Wilson Asset Management, Chermon Pty
Ltd (a subsidiary of Consolidated Press Holdings Limited), Joel Sng
(founding investor in Facebook, Inc.), the SEEK Limited founders
& management team (Andrew
Bassat, Paul Bassat and
Jason Lenga), Brad Shofer (co-founder of MYOB Limited,
investor in Xero Limited), Lind Partners LLC (founding investor in
Kickstarter. Inc.), Milford Asset Management (investor in Xero
Limited), KIS Capital Partners, and Josh
Liberman (LJCB investment group, early stage investor in
SEEK Limited).
KTM Capital acted as underwriter and Watson Mangioni Lawyers
acted as legal adviser to Freelancer in relation to the Offer.
Commenting on the successful allocation of the Offer, Freelancer
Limited CEO & Chairman Matt
Barrie said,
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire
Freelancer team for their efforts during the IPO process, and
welcome our new shareholders, many of whom are employees. I also
want to thank our 9 million employers and freelancers from around
the world, without who this business would not be where it is
today. Our listing on the ASX marks an important step in
Freelancer's future and represents a move that we believe will help
shape the Australian technology industry. The team is proud to have
built Freelancer into a global leader from Australia and will continue to work hard to
further drive this success."
Matt Barrie
CEO & Chairman
Freelancer Limited
About Freelancer
Freelancer was founded in 2009, is listed on the Australian
Securities Exchange (ASX: FLN) and is the world's largest
freelancing, outsourced services and crowdsourcing marketplace by
number of users and projects. Freelancer operates a network of 40
regional websites, making a seamless experience available in 31
languages and 18 currencies, with 24×7×365 multilingual support
available. Freelancer's mission is to help entrepreneurs globally
by connecting entrepreneurs running small businesses in the
developed world with entrepreneurs running service providers in the
developing world.
1 Eligible employees who accepted an invitation to
participate in the Employee Offer have been provided an interest
free loan from the Company to finance the whole of the purchase of
the shares for which they were invited to apply under the Employee
Offer.
2 Based on 436 million shares outstanding, inclusive
of 6 million shares under the Employee Share Plan.
SOURCE Freelancer