IPO? Serko gears up for 'significant company announcement' today
Serko says it will announce a "significant company announcement" today at 11am.
The travel software company, which has doubled in size to around 100 staff over the past year, has (© Copyright Protected - The National Business Review 2) been the subject of NZX and ASX listing speculation.
The recent announcement of high-powered new board members further stoked the IPO rumours.
Serko's cloud software is used by travel agents, (© Copyright Protected - The National Business Review 99) disrupting the behemoth systems like Galileo that have been used for eons.
The Auckland company has also started selling its system to the likes of large Aussie mining outfits, who use to (© Copyright Protected - The National Business Review 29) coordinate and get the best price for massive FIFO (fly in-fly out) movements of staff between urban areas and mines as they work two weeks on, two weeks off.
Privately held Serko has not (© Copyright Protected - The National Business Review 71) released financials, but the latest
TIN100 report says its 2013 revenue was $5.3 million – the same figure as the study estimated for 2012.
If HR is anything to go by, the company is (© Copyright Protected - The National Business Review 13) growing at a rapid clip.
Founder Darrin Grafton told NBR in March, "We have grown from 42 to 94 staff in 12 months to support the growth with at least 30 more staff required in the short (© Copyright Protected - The National Business Review 2) term."
At that time, as a tech stock backlash hit the Nasdaq, ASX and NZX, Mr Grafton was cool on IPO talk.
Today, things could be heating up again.
Already there's been one IPO sign, (© Copyright Protected - The National Business Review 39) with the company noting on March 3 that its newly-appointed CFO Tim Bluett has experience with "high-profile, publicly listed companies including Telecom New Zealand, British Telecom, and Cable (© Copyright Protected - The National Business Review 2) & Wireless."
Serko was part of NZX and ASX-listed Gullivers Travel Group until Gullivers was bought by Australia's S8. Co-founders Mr Grafton and Bob Shaw bought it back in (© Copyright Protected - The National Business Review 57) 2007.