Many in retirement are travelling comfortably, with three key factors contributing to their happiness – good physical and mental health and enough money to enjoy life.
Perhaps the assumption that markets are still anchored by predictable economic policies needs to be challenged. For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, political volatility – once background noise – is potentially reshaping investment risk at a structural level.
Hotel booking platform the latest to join the ASX
Recently Listed companies
SiteMinder (ASX:SDR) – Recently listed hotel commerce platform, SiteMinder, saw its shares rise 40% after listing on the ASX on Monday. The company added $500 million to the value of the business after raising some $627 million at $5.06 a share. This gives the company a cool market cap of $1.36 billion. The shares closed at $7.10 on Monday, but have since eased back to $6.48.
So what is SiteMinder?
According to its wesbsite, SiteMinder “helps hoteliers small and large, from independent motels to giant hotel groups, distribute rates and inventory on online channels such as Wotif, Meituan, and Trivago. In the past year, more than 35,000 hotels have used SiteMinder to generate more than 87 million reservations. SiteMinder is the world’s leading open hotel commerce platform, ranked among technology pioneers for its smart and simple solutions that put hotels everywhere their guests are, at every stage of their journey.”
Founded in Sydney by Mike Ford and Mike Rogers in 2006, the company says 60% of its revenue is generated outside the Asia-Pacific region, and 75% of subscribers are small and medium-sized businesses, including vacation rentals, lodges, motels and enterprise properties. Total revenue for the 2020/21 financial year was A$101 million. Like many high-growth technology companies, it has made a loss to date.
The company is steered by ex-Xero CFO Sankar Narayan and CFO Jonathan Kenny and has opened headquarters in Bangkok, Berlin, Dallas, Galway, London and Manila.
SiteMinder says the IPO will help fund long-term growth and grow its presence in the hotel market providing back-end reservation support to more than one-million hotels with potential for improved connectivity.
