MEGAPORT EARNS SLATTERY $38M ON DAY ONE

BEVAN Slattery's latest venture listed at a hefty 92 per cent premium on the Australian Securities Exchange this morning, boosting the tech entrepreneur's holding in Megaport Limited (ASX:MP1) by $38 million.

Shares in the software-based elastic connectivity provider, issued at $1.25 each, jumped as high as $2.40 in early trade and drifted to a low of $2.22 by late morning before rebounding.

Investors have been buoyed by Slattery's stunning past performance with share floats, including his most recent, dark fibre infrastructure provider Superloop (ASX:SLC), which is trading at double its issue price in May.

Slattery previously founded NEXTDC (ASX: NXT) and PIPE Networks, which was sold to TPG for $420 million in 2010.

About 3000 shareholders secured a piece of Megaport in an IPO that raised $25 million last month.

Megaport, founded by Slattery in 2013, aims to become a global leader in the fast-growing elastic interconnection services market.

Slattery, the Megaport executive chairman, says funds raised from the IPO will be used to complete construction of the company's North American and European networks.

They also will be applied to operating and maintaining those networks, hire additional sales staff and explore new growth opportunities.

"The IPO funding allows us to stay independent and neutral and achieve our business goals while maintaining our company values," says Slattery. 

"The IPO has enabled the participation of more than 3000 investors in Megaport's future as we strive to deliver on our vision to create a better way for networks and cloud to interconnect."

Slattery is Megaport's largest shareholder with 33 million shares, or 47.14 per cent of the company. His holding is worth about $78 million following today's strong debut, or $38 million more than the issue price.

Megaport's CEO Denver Maddux describes today's ASX listing as a significant milestone in the planned expansion of the Brisbane-based company's activities.

"This milestone allows Megaport to accelerate our business plans, to extend the platform deeper into existing markets, and to expand into new markets, including markets within North America, Europe, and Asia," Maddux says.

"We've already detailed our plan in the prospectus; now it's about execution and we've already started working on that."

The IPO will help fund Megaport's plans to boost its network of data centres to 45, targeting key markets in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Dublin, Amsterdam and Stockholm.

Megaport currently services more than 200 customers in six markets, including Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The company has current market capitalisation of about $87 million.

Reported by Brisbane Business News