Founder sells down as Aroa Biosurgery confirms $240m ASX float

Aroa Biosurgery chief executive Brian Ward says he will still have skin in the game post-IPO as the largest single shareholder. Photo / Supplied

Aroa Biosurgery has completed the bookbuild for its initial public offering, raising A$45m at a A$225m (NZ$240m) valuation.

All regulatory approvals going to plan, the Auckland-based medtech will list on the ASX on July 30, at 75c per share.

Aroa uses stomach lining from sheep to create a "bio-scaffold" that helps soft-tissue repair in humans for everything from bad cuts to hernias and breast reconstruction.

Proceeds are being used to fund growth, pay down debt and payout founding shareholders who are offloading part of their holdings.

A primary offer raised A$30m through the issue of 40 million new shares at 75c each.

And A$15m was raised through existing shareholders selling stock, including founder and chief executive Brian Ward.

The prospectus lists substantial shareholders states before and after the IPO - which will see new investors take 20 per cent of the company.

Ward, who holds 13.5 per cent of the company today, will have an 11 per cent stake post-float. Ward told the Herald he would have skin in the game as the single largest shareholder post-float.

Movac's Fund 3 stake will fall from 9.9 per cent to 8.6 per cent.

Movac managing partner Phil McCaw's separate stake through his McSyth Capital Investment Trust (a personal vehicle) will fall from 6.9 per cent to 5.6 per cent.

And a holding controlled by directors and employees, including Ward and McCaw, will fall from 8.5 to 6.0 per cent.

Source / Aroa Biosurgery Prospectus

The accounts in the prospectus confirm a big jump in revenue between 2018 ($8.4m) and 2020 $25.1m.

And that Aroa has had positive operating earnings for the past couple of years. Ebidta was $2.1m in 2019 and $0.22m in 2020.

But they also show a net loss of $4.5m in 2019 and $6.2m in 2020.

Total debt as of March 31, 2020 was $19.8m.

Of the money raised, NZ$13m will go to paying down debt, NZ$5m to sales and marketing, NZ$5m to boost manufacturing capacity, and NZ$5m to working capital, with the balance going to offer costs ($3.8m) and the selling shareholders (NZ$16m).

The prospectus does not make any financial forecasts, citing Covid-19 uncertainty.

In the New Year, Aroa was targeting a larger raise at a A$300m valuation.

"That was early in the process, and obviously Covid has played into it as well," Ward told the Herald.

The IPO was initially delayed as the outbreak depressed markets.

"But we've got some good growth plans and we want to pursue them," Ward said. "And it was hard to say how long the impact of Covid would last."

In March, after a decade of concentrating on the US, Auckland-based Aroa was close to releasing its wound-care product on the local market for the first time.

Although nearly all of Aroa's sales are in North America at this point - where it has had a complicated series of R&D and marketing partnerships - nearly all of its 150 staff are located at a 1700sq m facility beside Auckland Airport (see more on its operations and commercial structure in the Herald's recent profile here).

Ward said his company chose the ASX over the NZX because investors in the Australian exchange had more stomach for medtech startups - though he added that, operationally, Aroa is committed to basing itself in NZ long-term.

His company's listing across the Tasman is the second local med-tech lost to the ASX following the Wellington-based Volpara Technologies.