Enprise could raise $4.8 mln in share purchase plan to fund expansion
Enprise Group, the software company that listed on the NZAX in December, may raise as much as $4.8 million in a share purchase plan to fund its expansion plans.
The accounting software reseller will offer up to $15,000 of new shares to each New Zealand shareholder on the register as at Feb. 20 at 50 cents apiece, the Auckland-based company said in a statement. It has about 320 shareholders including its four directors, who will participate in the offer. The offer price is the same as for the share component of its acquisition of MYOB EXO practice Global Bizpro announced yesterday.
Shares of Enprise rose 4 percent today to 52 cents and have gained 11 percent this year. The MYOB EXO acquisition comes after Enprise bought Datagate Innovation, a developer of cloud portal software for telecommunications and utility companies, for $120,000 last year. Chief executive Mark Loveys said funds raised from the SPP may be used for merger and acquisition activity and for investment in Enprise's existing businesses.
"We're always looking at acquisitions," Loveys said. "We want to build up a big technology group but we need to make sure all the parts have strategic alignment."
Loveys was the original developer of Exonet ERP, the software that became MYOB EXO, which was first sold to Australia's Solution6 for some A$30 million. Solution6 later merged with MYOB. He also helped develop the EMS Cortex cloud provisioning software sold to Citrix in 2011 for US$11 million and was co-founder of Datasquirt, whose call centre software was sold to Californian call centre provider LiveOps for US$12.5 million that year, a company statement says.
