Megaport Announces IPO

BRISBANE, Australia, Nov. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Megaport, a leading software-based elastic connectivity provider today announced that it had lodged a Prospectus with the Australian Securities Commission (ASIC) to raise $25 million and had applied to list on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Denver Maddux, CEO Megaport

Megaport was founded in 2013 by one of Australia's leading technology entrepreneurs and the Company's Executive Chairman, Bevan Slattery, with the aim of becoming a global leader in the fast-growing elastic interconnection services market.

"Rather than enterprises needing to purchase long term, fixed bandwidth circuits between data centres and their cloud providers, Megaport has developed a platform that uses Software Defined Networking (SDN) to enable our customers to the provision of secure, dedicated, and highly scalable circuits otherwise known as 'elastic interconnects' between their network and other networks connected to the Megaport Fabric. With Megaport, customers can be provided with elastic interconnects for as long as a year and as short as one day, as slow as one megabit per second or as fast as 100 gigabits per second," said Mr Slattery.

Officially commencing operations in January 2014, Megaport now operates in 34 data centres across six markets in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In less than two years, Megaport already has over 200 active customers and partnered with some of the world's major cloud service providers, network operators, and content providers. Megaport is an Amazon AWS Technology Partner, Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute Partner and a Google Cloud Interconnection partner, providing elastic interconnectivity into their respective platforms.

Megaport CEO, Denver Maddux said that the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of Megaport and planned ASX listing represented the next step in the Company's international growth plans. "To achieve our vision we plan to extend the platform deeper into existing markets and expand into new markets, particularly key markets within North America, Europe, and Asia. The capital raising under the IPO helps the business accelerate those plans," said Mr Maddux.

In 2016, Megaport plans to expand into 45 data centres in North America and Europe in key markets including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Stockholm.

Mr Maddux said: "This is a tremendously exciting time for Megaport as I believe we are at the centre of a revolution brought about by the rise of software defined networking and cloud computing. We have built a great platform and a great team, and I look forward to expanding the Megaport platform into North America and Europe, as well as further into our existing markets in the Asia Pacific region."

In addition to Mr Slattery who serves as Executive Chairman, the Megaport Board includes Chief Executive Officer Denver Maddux (previously Microsoft and Limelight Networks), and Non-Executive Directors Drew Kelton (also managing director, Docusign Asia Pacific) and Simon Moore (also managing director and a global partner of The Carlyle Group).

At the A$1.25 Offer Price, Megaport will have a market capitalisation of A$87.5 million on completion of the Offer. Proceeds from the Offer will be used to complete the construction of the North American and European networks, operate and maintain those networks, hire additional sales professionals and continue to evaluate new growth opportunities.

The Offer is fully underwritten by Morgans Corporate Limited.

Completion of its IPO will see Megaport shares commence trading on the ASX during December this year.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Australian residents only

The Offer is available to Australian residents in each state and territory of Australia. The distribution of the Prospectus in jurisdictions outside Australia may be restricted by law. Seek advice on and observe any restrictions. The Prospectus is not an Offer in any place where, or to any person to whom, it would not be lawful to make the Offer.

Capitalised words used in this media release have the meanings given to them in the Prospectus unless otherwise provided.

Megaport Limited ACN 607 301 959 is the entity that is offering shares under the initial public offering referred to in this document (Offer). The Offer is contained in the Prospectus, which is available and can be obtained electronically by contacting the broker firm Morgans Corporate Limited on 1800-777-946 or at www.megaport.com/investor. You should read and consider the Prospectus in its entirety before deciding whether to acquire shares in Megaport. If you wish to acquire shares in Megaport, you will need to complete the application form that accompanies that Prospectus.

For further details, please read the Prospectus which contains detailed information about Megaport and its business, the details of the Offer and a description of the key risks associated with an investment in Megaport.

The Megaport Limited Prospectus is available from the Lead Manager and Underwriter, Morgans Corporate Limited, or by downloading it from the Megaport Website at: www.megaport.com/investor

For further comment or other information please contact:

Media enquiries about Megaport:
Email: media@megaport.com

WENDY HILL
SAPPHIRE COMMUNICATIONS
PH: +61-427-173-203
EM: wendy@sapphirecommunications.com.au

Megaport Share Offer Information Line:
Telephone: Morgans: 1800-777-946 (Australia toll-free)
(9:00am to 5:00pm AEST Monday to Friday during the Offer period)

About Megaport

Megaport began offering services in 2014 creating a new way for networks and cloud services to interconnect.  Megaport now provides on-demand, elastic connectivity to over 100 network and cloud services providers across multiple countries and continents. With plans to expand further in Asia, Europe, and North America in 2016, Megaport will service dozens of major markets around the world.

About Bevan Slattery

Bevan Slattery comes from a background in building successful Australian IT and telecommunications companies, and an earlier career in administration in local and state government. In 2010 Mr Slattery founded NEXTDC Limited, with a vision to become Australia's largest independent data centre provider. As the founding CEO of NEXTDC, he oversaw its listing on the ASX and initial facility rollout.

Today, NEXTDC has facilities in Australia's largest cities and is the largest regional data centre provider in terms of geography and IT power capability.  In 2002, Mr Slattery co-founded PIPE Networks which became Australia's largest Internet Exchange and third largest metropolitan fibre provider with over 1,500km of fibre in 5 cities connecting 80 data centres, 250 Telstra exchanges and over 1000 buildings. In 2009, PIPE Networks completed construction of Pipe Pacific Cable 1 (PPC-1), a $200 million submarine cable system linking Sydney to Guam. PIPE Networks was sold to TPG for an enterprise value of $420m in May 2010. He is also Executive Chairman and founding shareholder of Superloop Limited.  

Mr Slattery is a former Non-Executive Director of Asia Pacific Data Centre Trust. He is also a Director on the board of Swimming Australia. Mr Slattery holds an Honorary Master of Business Administration from Central Queensland University.

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