Blackpearl celebrates stock exchange listing

Beaming chief executive of Blackpearl Group Nick Lissette pondered the future after ringing the bell and enduring the confetti cannon in a function to celebrate the listing of the firm he founded on the stock exchange.

It has been one of a handful of listings on the NZX this year, opting for compliance or direct listing, meaning it was not raising any capital either through the sale of new shares or major shareholders selling down their own holdings.

Lissette said Blackpearl, an email and marketing company, was preparing for the future, when it will need capital to fund its planned acquisition of relevant technology companies to drive its growth.

"This is growth for us, we're now a listed company and being public entity is an amazing way of doing it if you're acquiring companies and that's what we're going to do."

He expected there would be targets to acquire as more technology companies found that the ready supply of money they were banking on for growth has dried up.

"It opens up a whole new world for us, there will be opportunities and problems, there will be hard parts and there will be great parts."

The first few hours trading were a touch sobering with the $1.25 listing price declining to a close of $1.08 on the turnover of just over 15,700 shares.

Lissette said he expected the price to bobble around as investors took time to get used to it being on the NZX.

Major shareholder and chair is US-based investor Tim Crown, who has a track record of finding and building up tech companies.

He told the listing function New Zealand could become a tech company incubator.

NZX chief executive Mark Peterson said Blackpearl's listing would give it credibility, because it had to meet the compliance requirements.

He said although Blackpearl was one of only a handful of listings this year, there were more in the pipeline, which have been held back by economic uncertainty and market turbulence.