Loop raises $5 million in oversubscribed IPO

Stuart Corner
Monday, 11 June 2007 11:15

IT Industry - Deals

The $5 million IPO of Loop Mobile, an international provider of mobile social networking services, has closed oversubscribed with "strong support from institutional and retail investors," according to the company. It expects to commence trading on the ASX on 26 June.

At the end of April Loop Mobile announced plans  to demerge from AdultShop and raise $5 million through an IPO. CEO and managing director, Martin Hoffman, acknowledged at the time that part of the reason for the IPO was to distance the company from AdultShop and he added: "The transparency of being a public company is a useful thing when dealing with international telcos and having that script may well provide flexibility for future acquisitions and corporate ventures."

Announcing the closure of the IPO, Hoffman said: "Since the lodging of our prospectus, the business has continued to perform well. Our results for the FY07 year will be consistent with the prospectus forecast." He added: "We have preliminary agreements for further expansion of our third-party branded community service business. Loop will be the provider of social networking services to ITV in the United Kingdom, commencing with communities built around The X-Factor and other television programmes launching initially in August.

"We have further accelerated plans for the launch of our own branded community, MOKO, 'off-deck' in the United Kingdom so that it is available to customers of all mobile carriers via the mobile Internet. Loop has the necessary billing and advertising supplier agreements in place to enable launch in the first quarter of FY08."

Loop's major shareholders include interests associated with Peter Yates at 12 percent, Greg Kennedy (Loop's initial seed investor) at 11 percent, Ian Rodwell (founder of Loop and Head of technology and products) at five percent and Hoffman at three percent.