Adelaide Legend lists oversubscribed

Memory hardware maker and distributor Legend has listed on the ASX, raising $8 million in a share issue that should spark growth for the Adelaide-based company.

Legend -- trading as Legend Performance Technology -- officially listed on the ASX as Legend Corporation on 16 March 2004, ending its first day with a market capitalisation of $40 million. Some 16 million of a total 67.8 million shares were initially offered in the company prospectus at 50 cents each, but closed oversubscribed at 59 cents.

Legend (Australasia)'s statement of financial performance for the year ended 30 June 2003 reported net profits of $2.2 million, on total revenue of around $82.3 million. The company has total liabilities of  $17.6 million.

The firm -- formerly known as VICSA Computercraft -- was founded in 1989 as a private company by Bradley Dowe and wife Louise Dowe.

Bradley Dowe has remained as director and CEO. The company lists three other directors -- executive director Simon Forth, chairman Paul Teissiere and non-executive director Timothy King. The Dowes still jointly hold some 50 million shares, with Invia Custodian and Permanent Trustees Australia rounding out the top four.

The monies raised in the IPO will reportedly be used to cover the company's sales obligations to resellers. Vendors include AMD, Hitachi, Hynix and MSI. Resellers include mass-market retailers such as Harvey Norman, Coles Myer and Dick Smith Electronics.

Legend started a new business unit, dubbed Legend Corporate, in July last year to attack the corporate reseller market in the wake of the departure of Dataram International from Australia and New Zealand.

The memory manufacturer has pushed into Australian retail, wholesale, white-box and OEM segments and is keen to drive into corporate reselling, both here and in New Zealand, Dowe said at the time.

Legend Corporation is headquartered in Adelaide, and has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Perth, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington, and Hong Kong. The distributor also has presences in South Africa and Slovakia.

Bradley Dowe, GM Lee Fox and executive director Simon Forth had not returned telephone inquiries at press-time.