Xro - xero

[Raven]

Sounds like a good person to have on board. I know he must have a huge amount of money to throw around but must believe in the product to some degree to invest $4 mil. I'm looking forward to seeing how things go when they finally start having a serious go at the US.

http://www.nzx.com/markets/NZSX/XRO/...Invest-in-Xero

[CJ]

Sounds like a good person to have on board.

A very good person. Will help them get coverage, especially in the small business IT market.

[Peitro]

Xero release half a dozen Australian bank feeds today, over the next few weeks Xero are expected to release "thousands" of more bankfeeds across Australia, the UK, Canada and the US.

Exciting times. Growth in the UK especially should take off with the release of more feeds.

Half year results should be out in the next week? will be interesting to see the latest customer numbers and projections on break-even.

[_Michael]

Xero release half a dozen Australian bank feeds today, over the next few weeks Xero are expected to release "thousands" of more bankfeeds across Australia, the UK, Canada and the US.

Exciting times. Growth in the UK especially should take off with the release of more feeds.

Half year results should be out in the next week? will be interesting to see the latest customer numbers and projections on break-even.

Amazing the progress they are making in the last 12 months.

My guess for the interim announcement is 27,000 paying small business customers, but the growth for next couple of years should get exponential.

The thing is they are signing up relevant partner channels in all markets, and this network is growing. W

I would be amazed if these guys are not in the nzx50 in the next 18 months which could put them on radar of institutional investors.

Really incredibl story really, while the world was going into gloom and doom over last couple of years this little kiwi company was taking developing a new market and adding new customers at a breakneck pace. NZ needs more of these ideas....

[_Michael]

Rod has told me that he will not sell Xero. He wants to show that, with the weightless economy, NZ can produce and sustain a world class multi-national company from a base here.

Good call.

[Peitro]

_Michael on the button... will be interesting to see once NZ institutional investors get on board - quite possibly the demand will initially come from overseas...

"Xero struggles to get NZ investors onboard

Online accounting software firm Xero, whose stock has soared to a record high, is struggling to get New Zealand's fund managers and analysts to buy into its "success story'', says founder Rod Drury.

Shares in the technology startup rose to $1.81 last week, the highest since the company listed on the NZX in mid-2007. Under Xero's growth strategy, the business isn't forecast to break even until the second half of next year and it burned through $12.9 million in the financial year to March 31, when sales amounted to just $3.4m.

Xero is betting on demand for its cloud-based accounting package aimed at small and medium businesses to win sales in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US, The company's CEO and biggest shareholder, Drury says there's a niche worldwide for a low-cost service that can link a company's bank transactions to its accounting platform and handle invoices but institutional investors don't understand its business model.

Despite a stellar line-up of big-name investors in the IT sector, including Trade Me founder Sam Morgan, MYOB founder Craig Winkler and most recently PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, institutional investors rank low among Xero's biggest shareholders. Bank of New Zealand is listed with a 2.5 per cent holding and the Accident Compensation Corporation, which typically allocates a portion of funds to smaller equity investments in New Zealand, had 0.8 per cent, according to the 2010 annual report. Drury's interests hold 27 per cent.

"We talk to [the New Zealand investment community] quite a bit, but they haven't invested any money in us, Drury said. "They've yet to understand the cloud-based model."

By contrast, "we are getting is a lot of broker demand out of Australia where they are now comparing us to Reckon and MYOB [accounting software firms]," he said.

Thiel, who bought $4m of new shares in Xero in late October at about $1.49 apiece, has seen his investment jumped about 22 per cent since then. Thiel, who was one of the first external investors in Facebook, may have helped fan the stock's advance, given his track record backing IT start-ups.

Xero can afford to burn cash a bit longer. Of the total $50m it has raised since inception, it still has around $21.3m in the bank at March 31, which excluded Thiel's $4m contribution last month. It reported a net loss of about $8.45m last year and is scheduled to release its first-half results for the current year this week.

In his presentation to shareholders at the annual meeting in July, Drury said Xero has a "highly scalable" platform that could cater for "hundreds of thousands" of customers and it had a longer-term vision of "millions of customers". As at June, the company had 22,000 customers worldwide.

Ad Feedback "We get approached by these companies all the time and I tell them to come back when they've got three years of cash flow positive operations under the belt," said Paul Robertshawe, a fund manager with Tower Asset Management. "Early stage companies are a dream and most of the dreams fail," he said, making clear he wasn't specifically alluding to Xero.

The company sold shares in its 2007 IPO at $1 each. At the time, one of the sale organisers, First NZ Capital CEO Scott St John, said he was hopeful the IPO "will act as a catalyst for more New Zealand companies to experience the benefits of a public listing and a broad investor base."

Since then, companies attempting to go public have had mixed fortunes. South Island milk processor Synlait abandoned a public sale and ended up selling shares to China's Bright Dairy. BioVittoria, which was bringing a natural sweetener to market, withdrew its sale after failing to reach the minimum target.

"There is blue sky in the share price, but the New Zealand market is hungry for companies that have the upside potential that Xero is seen to offer," said an investment adviser who asked not to be named. "You can pick holes in it and say the market is getting carried away a bit, but some people are prepared to take that journey."

[Stranger_Danger]

I remember the last time tech people were telling me I "didn't understand".

It was in 1999.

[zs_cecil]

http://www.xero.com/downloads/pdf/an...nouncement.pdf

Half year result is out. it says that its lost has reached the maximum point and turning to be reduced in the following months towards to break-even.

[Nigel]

http://www.xero.com/downloads/pdf/an...nouncement.pdf

Half year result is out. it says that its lost has reached the maximum point and turning to be reduced in the following months towards to break-even.

Market responding well, buyers at $1.90. Good to hear they're expecting to still have lots of cash in the bank at break-even.

[nwood]

Running a public company you think in 6 monthly increments. All the work during the period ends up in black and white and out in the market. There is no hiding and it’s not for the faint hearted. There is no getting off the merry-go-round.

But in today’s 1/2 year results I think we’ve demonstrated that our strategy is working. Here are the highlights …

Near tripling of half year operating revenues from $1.3m to $3.7m. This compares with 2010 full year revenues of $3.4m. Annualised subscriptions are running at approximately $9.0m.
Successful recruitment to resource our operating model in New Zealand, Australia and the UK lifted headcount from 73 to 101 and therefore a planned rise in operating costs to $7.9m – up 59%.
Net loss of $4.7m – an increase of 24%, is expected to be the maximum loss incurred as the company drives toward break-even.
Cash at bank of $16.6m as at 30 September 2010 – excludes $4m additional monies raised by the Peter Thiel strategic placement in October. Xero anticipates having significant cash reserves at its planned break-even point.
You can read the full announcement here: Xero half year announcement

All looks on the up and up