Geraldton-founded marine services business Bhagwan Marine charted a steady debut on the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday in what doubled as WA’s biggest initial public offering in nearly three years.
An emotional husband and wife team Loui and Kerren Kannikoski told The West Australian it was “surreal” to see the company they set up nearly 25 years ago off the back of a family crayfishing business start a new chapter on the stock market.
“It’s been a long time coming and there’s been some ups and downs on the way through, so to get to this point and have everyone here, it’s a big day,” said Mr Kannikoski, who brought his mother Matilda to ring the opening bell.
His business partner and wife Kerren said the pair were “proud of each other”.
Bhagwan Marine manged to raise $80 million in its IPO through the issue of 126,984,127 new shares that were up for grabs a 63¢ a piece, making it the largest new listing since human services provider APM made its debut in November 2021.
Trading under the ticker BWN, shares were out the gate on Tuesday at 66¢ before dipping briefly to 62¢ and picking up to close at 63.5¢. The family has retained more than a 40 per cent slice in the business after buying nearly 500,000 new shares in the fully underwritten offer.
![Kerren Kannikoski, Matilda Kannikoski and Loui Kannikoski.](https://timesofsydney.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/4f0929edab61c5dfc13c2a3d1dff8d0116b1f888-16x9-x0y158w3031h1705.jpg)
Bhagwan’s long-time chair Anthony Wooles will emerge with a 8.5 per cent holding.
But Mr Kannikoski will not be retiring “any time soon” as the company shifts from private to public, and will stay on as Bhagwan’s managing director and chief executive.
“The future’s so bright for the company, it’s going to be a really exciting next five years,” he said. The fresh capital will firstly be used to pay down debt from the Kannikoskis and a private equity group and former shareholder Catalyst.
Bhagwan, which started out with one vessel in 2000 and now operates 96 vessels with 70 of them owned, wants to make the most of work available in its primary field of oil and gas, including in decommissioning. Contracts for work on offshore wind farms, defence projects and ongoing maintenance will also be part of the pipeline.
Bhagwan boasted it was likely to beat earnings expectations for the 2024 financial year as outlined in its June prospectus, expecting between $39.5m and $40.5m compared with a previous $38.8m.
The listing also marked a big win for St Georges Terrace firm and lead broker and underwriter to the raising Euroz Hartleys. Managing director Tim Bunney said he was “extremely proud” to bring another WA business to the ASX in what had been “a pretty challenging two years for IPOs”.
![Brian Beresford (Corp Finance Director Euroz Hartleys), Tim Bunney (MD Euroz Hartleys) Loui Kannikoski, Kerren Kannikoski and Andrew McKenzie (Chairman Euroz Hartleys).](https://timesofsydney.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/51db15c7bacbbd56d0833d09c8cf42d03b907807-16x9-x0y0w3031h1705.jpg)
“We see numerous opportunities in the IPO space if the market is willing to support putting growth capital to work,” he said.
“WA has an unbelievable private sector, certainly a lot of private businesses would be watching the response from the market today and so it’s another positive step in what’s been a pretty poor time. But if we can start to show these sorts of results, then maybe the IPO window will open up.”
He also tipped Bhagwan as one of the few ways to gain exposure to the marine services industry after MMA Offshore was bought out for $1 billion by Singaporean-based private equity firm Cyan earlier this year.
The Kannikoskis plan to keep a strong family theme throughout the business, with son Tom working in the business along with Loui’s sister and a niece.