Stockbroking and financial advisory group Bell Financial has made a promising debut on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), with its shares closing up 18 per cent.
Bell completed its initial public offering (IPO) yesterday, issuing 43.9 million shares and raising $84.6 million.
Bell Financial executive chairman Colin Bell said the desire to have staff participate in the ownership and future growth of the Melbourne-based group was an important factor in the decision to list.
In addition to 33.9 million general offer shares issued at $2 each, there were 9.8 million employee discount offer shares bought at $1.80 a share and 134,000 shares set aside for employee grant offers.
Bell Commodities owns 51.8 per cent of the shares with the next largest shareholder being UBS Nominees at 18.5 per cent.
Bell Financial owns 25 per cent of newly-launched online broking platform Bell Direct, which was built in partnership with a Perth-based technology team. It has an option to acquire another 25 per cent in 2009.
One of Australia's largest full service stockbroking firms, Bell Financial has 12 offices and 630 staff servicing 125,000 clients with more than $25 billion in funds under advice at September 30, 2007.
The company has forecast net profit after tax will be $32.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2007.
Financial services companies have been very busy with IPOs in 2007. Shares in BT Financial shares made a modest ASX debut on December 10, trading at a small premium to their price.
Dealer groups Professional Investment Services and Australian Financial Services are preparing to list.
Bell Financial's shares opened at $2.49 on its first day of trading. The stock closed up 18 per cent or 36 cents on its initial offer price of $2.
