Australian ISP Aussie Broadband makes its debut on the ASX, with oversubscribed $40 million IPO

• Aussie Broadband Limited has today started trading on the ASX under ticker “ABB”

• The company has more than 300,000 residential, small business and enterprise customers, and is the fifth largest provider of NBN services in Australia today

• Aussie Broadband manages its own national and international network, enabling granular control of both bandwidth and troubleshooting to deliver high quality internet and award-winning customer service

• The $40 million Initial Public Offering (IPO), managed by Shaw and Partners, was significantly oversubscribed with strong support from institutional and customer investors

• Funds raised will be used to accelerate infrastructure development, acquire new customers and expand its business product offering

Aussie Broadband Limited ASX:ABB, a leading internet service provider has today started trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), following an oversubscribed Initial Public Offering (IPO) that raised $40 million.

Under the IPO, 40 million shares were offered at $1 a share, which gave the company an initial market capitalisation of $190.3 million.

Managing Director and CEO Phillip Britt said the $10 million customer offer was over-subscribed and closed within 75 minutes, with over 9,000 queuing before the offer opened. Existing shareholders remain heavily invested in the business and there was no sell down in the IPO.

“Money raised under the offer will be used to accelerate infrastructure development, acquire new customers and expand its business offering,” said Phil.

Dark fibre network

The successful IPO, managed by Shaw and Partners, places the company in a strong position to progress its $67 million rollout of its own dark fibre network, which will reduce its reliance on third-party infrastructure and ultimately deliver meaningful long-term cost savings.

The fibre project, which started in May 2020, is expected to be completed by 2022.

Phil said this is really the next major step in allowing the company to control its own destiny.

“Our own fibre in the ground goes to the heart of our approach to the business. It means that we can control quality and improve our customer experience even more, and it means we can start to drive down our backhaul costs,” he said.

Aussie Broadband – growth based on better quality, customer service and transparency

Aussie Broadband is a challenger internet service provider, with a reputation for providing high-quality internet and transparent customer service.

It has grown to become Australia’s fifth largest provider of nbn™ (NBN) services, connecting more than 300,000 residential and business customers across the country.

It offers a range of services across the residential, small business and enterprise segments, including broadband, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), mobile plans and entertainment bundles through a partnership with Fetch TV.

In 2016 Aussie became the first ISP outside the big four to build a network to all 121 NBN Points of Interconnect across Australia.

The company was formed from a merger between Wideband Networks, started by Phil Britt and his business partner John Reisinger in the Latrobe Valley, and Westvic Broadband based in Warrnambool, in 2008.

“We’ve come a long way from 27,000 customers in June 2017. Last month we connected our 300,000th customer – a 100,000 net gain in just over 5 months,” said Phil.

“As an Australian-owned company, we are committed to having only Australian support centres. This sets us apart from competitors who rely heavily on overseas-based call centres where staff generally know little about local market conditions affecting customers.

“Our business has grown strongly over the past three years due to our reputation for providing high-quality internet at both home, business and enterprise level, and our transparent customer service to ensure our customers have as seamless a service from us as possible.

“Our investors are telling us they want to become part of a business that is operating with incredibly strong ethics and values, that is contributing in unique ways to the Australian community and economy, that has a heart and treats its people well. They want to be part of the Aussie Broadband story, as well as see their capital grow with us,” Phil said.

Industry leading software

Aussie Broadband Chief Technology Officer and co-founder, John Riesinger said Aussie Broadband has invested heavily in automation to realise cost and operational efficiencies, balanced with excellent customer service through its Australian-based call centres.

“Automation has been key to keeping costs low and customer experience high, including the award-winning MyAussie® app,” he said.

“The app was built by Aussie Broadband’s in-house development team in just 45 days, and nearly 70% of customers have used it since its launch in March 2019.”

The app offers innovative features for customers that have never been seen before from a big telco player, designed to give customers more control of their own service – through both functions and information. It allows customers to diagnose and troubleshoot their own NBN connection, lodge a fault with the support team, check usage, update account details and add and relocate a service at any time.

A prime example is the function enabling customers to “kick” their own service (restart a service all the way through the network – rather than just at a modem level on premises), something that was only ever possible previously by calling one of Aussie Broadband’s customer service staff.

In 2020, Aussie Broadband launched the Carbon platform. The platform breaks new ground for IT Managers and Managed Service Providers across Australia, enabling them to manage services for their business or customers at the touch of a button, and provision services within minutes rather than months.

Revenue model

Aussie Broadband provides mobile, broadband, hardware, home and entertainment bundles to residential, small business and enterprise users. Over the last four years, the company has exhibited rapid growth through a combination of innovative, competitively-priced NBN bundles, together with the NBN becoming more widely available across Australia.

FY18 figures show it provided approximately 60,000 new residential connections and generated $49.27 million in revenue.

The company forecasts in its Prospectus FY21 pro-forma revenue of $338.10 million and about 368,000 residential connections.

Management

Aussie Broadband is led by an experienced and diverse management team.

Managing Director and co-founder Phillip Britt is an innovator with more than 24 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry. He has served on the Board of Directors of Aussie Broadband since the merger in 2008. Phil has taken the company from a small regionally-focussed business to an Australia-wide quality internet service provider.

In addition to the many prestigious award that the company has won, Phil has been recognised for his contributions to the Australian telco industry by being inducted into the Edison Awards Hall of Fame.

Last month, Phil was named ACOMMS Communications Ambassador of the Year, which is the highest honour presented by Communications Alliance each year.

Aussie Broadband Chairman and Non-Executive Director Adrian Fitzpatrick has extensive operational, financial management and strategic experience from a career that has spanned over 30 years. He has held senior leadership and management positions with Pitcher Partners, where he was one of the firm’s founding partners.

“This is an important day in the history of Aussie Broadband and listing on the ASX marks the beginning of the next chapter of our journey,” said Adrian. “It is clear that today the internet is no longer a luxury but a necessary part of our daily lives. So, we look forward to meeting the ever-increasing appetite of Australian consumers for fast and reliable internet connectivity.”