Living Green shakes tree for pre IPO fund raising

Living Green directors, Grant Leach, CEO (left) and head biochemoist, Nigel McLisky.

Kiwi natural products company Living Green Group is midway through a funding round as it gears up for overseas expansion and says an initial public offering is still on the cards.

The company has hired local boutique broker Foster Capital to help raise the capital from wholesale investors and chief executive Grant Leach says the plan is to raise at least $5 million by the end of March.

Living Green was founded in 2011 by father and daughter Nigel and Sigrid McLisky. It focuses on the natural, eco-friendly sector with products ranging from baby care and hygiene to pets, fabrics, clothing and homes.

Leach said the latest capital raise gives the company an interim war chest to spend on brand extensions and product development but the need for more significant funding hasn't gone away.

He has previously talked about raising up to $40m in an IPO, most likely listing on the ASX.

That's still in the game plan, Leach said.

"It's just a matter of timing and also based on how we are tracking with regard to local and offshore export market … we don't see the requirement for that funding going away."

Living Green, which generated domestic sales of around $5m in the year to March 2018, is targeting Australia, the US and China as key offshore markets.

Meanwhile, Foster Capital is new on the scene but has been pretty active, recently helping Kiwi start-up FaceMe with a US$13m capital raise in a series A funding round.

Other work included a $2m equity raise for Heilala Vanilla, $4.33m for East Imperial and a seed capital raising for Heineken Urban Polo.

Foster Capital was established in April 2018 by Chris Francis (brother of Augusta Capital's Mark Francis) and Sam Macdonald (ex DF Mainland and Direct Broking) in partnership with Australian small cap specialist, Foster Stockbroking Pty Ltd.