Announced this morning that the Burger Fuel IPO period will be extended – it didn’t meet the minimum $8mill they had set (remember they were aiming for $15mil) so they’ve extended it and guaranteed that the existing shareholders will make up the shortfall (between the uptake and the $8mill figure)

It’s a shame really – it would have been good to see it embraced by investors – much has been said about the relative merits of their and Xero’s IPO but no matter what it’s always good to see Kiwi companies achieve.

They’ve got another week to pull in a few more punters but I would think most people will wait and purchase post listing when the price is sure to drop.

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

4 Comments
  • Why is this a shame? Burgerfuel are trying to sell an over-hyped IPO and everybody knows it.

    What is a shame is that if it is such a good business why didn’t they price it more realistically so investors could get behind it and give it a go? Instead, they decided to take a punt at flogging to a market that is smarter than they figured and now the market is possibly more cynical than they were before.

    Excellent to see local companies and ideas embraced by the market but not at any price. Even Graeme Hart leaves something on the table.

  • Parochial reasons Robin – merely that it’s always nice to see NZ companies doing well and scaling.

  • Disclosure: I haven’t had a look at Burger Fuel’s financial info (never got that far). Could be interesting/instructive.

    I will venture some thoughts that are entirely speculative:

    a) The pitch was wrong. Though the brand may be constructed to be ‘hip’ the bottom line is what investors want to know about. It is easy to get swept away with enthusiasm for your own brand story. After all you created it.

    Burger Fuel are an OK product. I am not sure that it is outstanding. I took my son for a burger in their Parnell. 15 he may be but he can chow down on chilli like a full on resident of the Baja peninsular. The BF menu promised it was a ‘Ring Burner’. I tried some. My tolerance is lower. It was as mild as a peanut butter and jelly. My own burger was promised to be a blue cheese wonder. But it had as much kick as a block of Pam’s mild valuepack. The product isn’t exciting. It underdelivers and relies too heavily on cute copy.

    The proof of the burger is in the eating. Victor Kiam famously said “I liked it so much…I bought the company”. I am not certain that BF has enough raving fans for the brand to be a phenomenon. I rather like Burger Wisconson – the food is very good and the hype is considerably more palatable.

    b) Spending cash on television advertising to punt the float on the lines of – ‘would you like shares with that?’ hardly promises prudent management of my investment.

    Children don’t buy shares.

    I don’t know what other, more discreet, communications the company distributed but I’m thinking they have taken mistook the tastes of the market.

    I think they are a cute business but I’d be more inclined to invest in something a little more distinctive.

    To succeed beyond a successful distribution/franchise strategy I think Burger King will need a magic spell to be anything other than a penny dreadful.

    I’ve been wrong before (of course…but I did correctly call the sale of 42 Below).

  • Good comments David and I agree – notwithstanding the fact that it’s always nice for NZ companies to do well – BF treated the investing public like children in their marketing the IPO

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