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New Zealand's latest billionaire confirmed after shares rocket skyward

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Fri, 17 May 2019, 2:53PM
The "funemployed" Rod Drury. Photo / Mike Scott.
The "funemployed" Rod Drury. Photo / Mike Scott.

New Zealand's latest billionaire confirmed after shares rocket skyward

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Fri, 17 May 2019, 2:53PM

Despite some analyst qualms about tech stocks hitting the kind of giddy multiples last seen during the dot-com boom, Xero shares have held yesterday's huge gain - and continued heading skyward.

Xero's clocked another annual loss yesterday, but did make a slim profit ($1.4 million) profit in the second half and enjoyed its first cashflow positive year - sending its shares up 10 per cent in a session to a record high of A$60.15.

In early trading today, it rose again to $A61.25.

The Wellington-based, ASX-listed company now has a market cap of A$8.6 billion ($9.1b).

That makes the Drury family's 12.58 per cent stake in Xero worth A$1.1b ($1.2b).

Xero shares have now risen by more than 50 per cent since the cloud accounting company abandoned the local stock exchange early last year for an ASX-only listing.

Rod Drury, who founded Xero in 2006, stepped down as Xero chief executive last year, but remains a director.

2018 also saw him separate from his wife Anna.

This year has seen him keep a much lower profile. In his Twitter bio, he now bills himself as "funemployed."

At Xero's full-year result yesterday, new boss Steve Vamos gave no guidance for the new financial level bar that he expected free cash flow to be a "similar' to 2019 (when Xero it was 1.2 percent or $6.5 million on revenue of $552.8m).

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