These were the best performing IPO for the year, Phosphate Australia, and two coal exploration companies, Tiaro Coal and Waratah Coal.

Waratah Coal has since been taken over by Clive Palmer’s company Mineralogy. As of the start of this month it had de-listed off the Australian Securities Exchange and plans are in place to remove itself from the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Waratah is looking to develop a 25 million tonne per annum coal mine, 500 kilometres of rail and a new port, worth $5.3 billion, in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

Waratah started strongly on the ASX in November, listing with a 122% premium to its $1.65 issue price.

It quickly attracted the interest of Mineralogy, which at the time was a 14% stakeholder in Waratah.

Palmer was appointed chairman of the company as it succumbed to Mineralogy’s hostile takeover.

Waratah most probably benefitted from listing so late in the year. Deloitte noted that two companies in its list of 10 best IPOs “were floated after the mid-October meltdown in world financial markets and hence the IPO price would have factored-in current conditions”.

Phosphate Australia raised $10 million for its IPO and had, at one stage, produced a gain of more than 300% for its investors before easing back to a credible 120%.

Managing director Andrew James attributes his company’s ability to remain in positive ground to simply having the right commodity and the right time.

Phosphate Australia’s commodity is Australian-mined phosphate.

The company has exploration projects at three different stages: exploration, intermediate and advanced on its 100%-owned tenements in the Georgina Basin of the Northern Territory.

“Phosphate is still a commodity that a lot of people are interested in,” James told AMM.

“We have had a substantial shareholder that came in and picked up our shares on-market, which is obviously positive for the company.

“And we have a good project that we will be continuing to take forward this year that is well funded, which is also critical in the present market.”

A lesson to be learned from the Phosphate Australia experience is that being well prepared before listing is a great advantage, especially in the present economic climates.

The company had acquired a project that had already had quite a lot of work done on it.

This allowed it to hit the ground running and it was in the field, working on the project a month and a half after listing.

“We had a very advanced target that we could justify getting on the ground and spending the money on,” James said.

This is an edited extract from a piece that will appear in the April edition of Australia’s Mining Monthly.