Fiducian lists at small discount

Financial planners and boutique fund manager Fiducian Portfolio Services closed on its first day of trading just four cents down on its $1.20 issue price.

Financial planners and boutique fund manager Fiducian Portfolio Services closed on its first day of trading just four cents down on its $1.20 issue price.

The stock listed at an eight cent premium to its issue price and then was traded down slightly in afternoon trading to close at $1.16.

Fiducian listed after raising $22.4 million for expansions in Australia and overseas. It offered a total of 18.673 million shares, or about 60 per cent of the company, at $1.20 each.

Fiducian had originally planned to float in three years, when funds under management were ex-pected to have grown to around $2 billion from the current $400 million.

In its prospectus, Fiducian forecasts funds under management will grow to $720 million by June 2001, and exceed $1 billion one year later. That would translate to a $2.5 million profit in 2001 and $4.4 million in 2002, from the 1999/2000 figure of $908,000.

Of the total share offering, 10 million are new, and 8,67 million are to be sold by AM Corp, which assisted in funding Fiducian's start-up phase.

Fiducian managing director Indy Singh says the extra capital from the listing will be used to fund financial planning and superannuation initiatives.

“The float will enable us to expand our financial planning base. We’ll also be looking to improve the administration system to grow our DIY/Corporate super business, wrap account and risk broking,” Singh says.

“And we’ll be able to complete and improve our financial planning software.”