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had to offer,” Sorensen said. Commodities
“This is my first IPO. I had to learn it as I
went. We selected what I think are the best
providers in the business – BDO to do ac-
counting piece, Gilbert+Tobin for law and
Snowdens and CSA Global to do most of
the technical work. It was through the com-
bined efforts of all those people that we
were able to make this IPO a success.”
For Carter, the recent spate of explora-
tion success has made capital easier to
come by but has also increased expecta-
tions.
“You need assets with results that fills the
news gaps quickly,” he said. “As an explora-
tion company, every dollar you spend takes
you a dollar closer to your next capital rais-
ing so you need to ensure you get results.
“You do see the usual where companies
are putting together projects which don’t
make sense, but I think you see a lot less of
the $5 million IPO which is used to have an
office, a car and lunch; you now need all of No. of new listings
that money to run the company.
“Results being rewarded means you
can’t live the lifestyle of the corporate credit IPO Amount $179.02m
card; you have to do the work to give share-
holders bang for their buck. Median $6m
“There are not as many bandits as there Mean $7.46m
used to be – the best way to make it work is Biggest IPO 2020 $22m WA Kaolin Ltd
to get the share price up.”
BDO was fully engaged in IPO activity Smallest IPO 2020 $2 Benz Mining Corp
throughout 2020 and global head of natu-
ral resources Sherif Andrawes doesn’t see
that volume easing in the first half of 2021.
“Our book of IPOs is bulging with a doz-
en exploration and related companies who
have cash,” Andrawes told Paydirt. “There
is a tsunami of money coming to mining
companies, mainly gold but other com-
modities as well.”
The size of capital raisings may also in-
crease in 2021, according to Andrawes.
“There are a lot of companies who, rath- Geography
er than going hand-to-mouth, have raised
enough for two or three years.”
Regulatory changes in the early stages
of the pandemic made capital raisings eas-
ier but Athanasoff also identified changes
to other listing avenues as a potential lever
to IPO growth.
“The ASX is really tightening the rules
around backdoor listings and there is cer-
tainly less of them because of the regula-
tions,” she said. “A key change in August
was the ASX’s tightening of rules around
the spread. ASX may require the spread
requirement to be satisfied from subscrip-
tions for fresh capital as part of the re-com-
pliance listing. That is a key advantage tak-
en away. The question is why would you do
it? A key reason is that the listed company
can raise capital at 2c, versus 20c under an
IPO, subject to ASX and shareholder ap- Stats compiled by Nick Sakalidis
proval.”

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