Serko plans NZ and Australian Stock Exchange listing

News release

Serko plans New Zealand and Australian Stock Exchange listing

Auckland, 13 May 2013 – Auckland software company Serko, a market leader in corporate travel booking, plans to list on the New Zealand and Australian Stock Exchanges before September this year.

Serko’s flagship product Serko On-line is a cloud based corporate travel booking engine that is the No. 1 in Asia-Pacific by market share and, together with Serko’s international partners, holds the No.2 position in the world.

Serko is owned by the founders Darrin Grafton and Bob Shaw and a group of private equity partners. Transacting over AUD$5 billion in travel spend across the Asia Pacific region each year, the company is now looking at the next phase in its growth plans and intends to dual list on the New Zealand and Australian Stock Exchanges.

Darrin Grafton and Bob Shaw believe they have the opportunity to develop “something really special” right here in New Zealand. Through Serko’s leading technology and armed with patents* they believe the company has the potential to be worth over NZ$1 billion within two years. This will match the performance of high profile Kiwi accounting software company Xero and also put Serko in the league of companies like health software exporter Orion Health. All of Serko’s global competitors are publicly traded and each is valued well in excess of NZ$1 billion.

Serko has an abundance of new developments on the boil including planned acquisitions, international growth and product enhancements. The company is part of a huge and growing industry. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, travel and tourism was a US$6.3 trillion industry in 2011 (see http://www.wttc.org/our-mission/annual-report/) generating 9% of global GDP and employs 260 million people. Travel is growing rapidly in India and China, and an interesting example of mass industrial air travel is the weekly transportation of thousands of mine workers in Western Australia.

Serko has been named a finalist in the Hi-Tech Awards in the prestigious Company of the Year category alongside Xero and Buckley Systems see http://www.hitech.org.nz/finalists/ The awards will be presented on Friday 17 May see http://www.hitech.org.nz/

* Serko’s patents include one for mobile near field communications relating to business travel and expense management; and another for mass movement of travellers in the mining and resource sector.

For a corporate profile of Serko yesterday, today and tomorrow visit http://www.serkoonline.com/about-company.html

For more information on Serko’s on-line travel and expense management system, and a sample corporate client list, visit http://www.serkoonline.com/Serko-online.html

ENDS

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