Nick Lissette (Blackpearl Group)
Technology acquisition company Blackpearl Group is planning to list on the NZX, without a capital raising, as a platform for future growth.
Blackpearl Group describes itself as a technology company that builds, acquires, and markets data-driven cloud services. These consist of a suite of productivity and demand generation applications for small and medium-sized businesses.
“A direct listing on the NZX offers us the fastest and lowest cost means of moving to a public platform to support future growth,” founder and chief executive Nick Lissette said.
“Our goal for the intended listing is to accelerate acquisitions by being able to offer stock in a listed entity as part of our offer to companies we wish to acquire."
Becoming a listed company also offered future capital raising opportunities on the public market, he said.
Companies Office record show an entity registered as Black Pearl Group with extensive local and international shareholdings. Lisette-related entitiy Teamwork Group holds the second largest tranche of 10.2 per cent while Logistics millionaire Sir Owen Glenn is the fifth largest shareholder with 7.5 per cent.
VTPE Investments of Scottsdale Arizona is the company's largest shareholder with 12.9 per cent.
Blackpearl chair Tim Crown, a co-founder of Arizona-based and Nasdaq listed Microsoft partner Insight Enterprises, said the company’s Kiwi origins, coupled with the NZX’s low cost and low friction listing platform, made going public there the next logical step for the company.
“Blackpearl Group is both a technology company and an investment company with enormous opportunity,” Crown said. “Having invested in creating a unique technology platform that can add value to a range of applications, we have an opportunity to innovate into new digital markets.”
Lissette said the company's proprietary data platform, the Pearl Engine, was what would deliver organic growth for both owned and acquired products.
“Our strategy is about much more than simply acquiring technology businesses for their revenue, it’s about gaining access to new talent and markets, and most importantly, accelerating organic growth,” Lissette said.
“Our private platform enables us to help the businesses we acquire accelerate their growth and development.”
It was the right time for Blackpearl Group to list and further to accelerate its acquisition strategy, Lissette said.
Market slowdowns and plummeting valuations of private businesses due to global recessionary pressures had created unprecedented opportunities in the market, he added.
Blackpearl has just completed the acquisition of email platform and apparent rival NewOldStamp.
Black Pearl is to list on or around 2 December subject to final approval of its application from NZX and NZ RegCo.
Blackpearl's email signature platform moved onto Microsoft Azure in 2017 before the company shifted its headquarters from Wellington to Arizona in 2019.
