BUILDING A BRIDGE TO THE ASX

A NEW Brisbane investment house has pinned its hopes on the reputation of its managing director, Stuart McAuliffe, to raise up to $5.2 million from investors.

McAuliffe is the founding investment manager for the Aliom Managed Futures Fund No 1, a wholesale fund for sophisticated investors that has achieved annualised returns of more than 109 per cent over the past three years.

The new IPO, John Bridgeman Ltd, specialises in multi strategy funds management and is offering 3.2 million shares at $1 each with the ability to accept oversubscriptions to raise up to $5.2 million.

Each share will have a $1 option attached and the company will be capitalised at $10.6 million should the minimum subscription be achieved. The offer is not underwritten.

McAuliffe and his family will invest a minimum of $1 million of their own money into the float. McAuliffe has also backed himself in the new venture by waiving his director's fee in the first year and is incentivised by out-of-the-money options.

"It's very much about showing my commitment and confidence.  My interests are correlated with my shareholders," McAuliffe says.

"I'm being incentivised with out-of-the-money options, which is pretty unusual, maybe unprecedented, particularly in funds management."

John Bridgeman, which was established this year, invests in both unlisted and listed investment companies and aims for moderate to high investment returns over the medium to long term.

The company also plans to act in wholesale funds for institutional and high-net-worth clients.

John Bridgeman will provide investment management services to Henry Morgan Limited, an unlisted investment company, specialising in multi strategy investment management.

McAuliffe says the company will invest a minimum of 50 per cent of the capital raised through the IPO in Henry Morgan and, following this, aims to list Henry Morgan on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

"This is a really exciting opportunity," he says. "We have a great track record of outperformance in global markets. We are focused on global opportunities in the US, Europe and Asia and the IPO provides investors a great opportunity to come on board and share in this established record and what we believe will be future success."

McAuliffe will also maintain his links with Aliom Managed Futures Fund No 1 as John Bridgeman will provide investment management services to the fund.

Chairman of John Bridgeman, John McAuliffe says the funds raised will provide the company with the working capital needed to support its growth strategy.

"An ASX listing will provide John Bridgeman with access to equity capital markets, facilitate corporate transactions by the issue of shares, give employees an opportunity to participate in the ownership of the company and provide liquidity for existing shareholders," he says.

The John Bridgeman offer opens March 24 and will remain open until April 24. Shares are expected to start trading on May 1.