Two Way TV Australia is launching an initial public offering for a listing on the Australian stock market in order to expand its interactive gaming operation.
According to its prospectus, Two Way TV Australia will offer 40 million shares at one Australian dollar each, equivalent to approximately £16.7 million in total.
Sam Chisholm, chairman of Australian pay television group Foxtel and former chief executive of BSkyB, is a shareholder in the company.
Two Way TV Australia dates back to a separate company founded in 1990 and has had an exclusive technology and content licence with Two Way TV in the UK for Australia and New Zealand since 2000. In other respects it is unrelated to the UK company.
Based in Sydney, the Australian company provides content for the MindGames channel on Foxtel and Austar and has a contract with TAB to establish a service to allow viewer to place bets on races shown on Sky Racing, although it has yet to negotiate a carriage contract.
The company currently makes an operating loss, but is looking to expand its operations, particularly around betting services in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong, China and India. It aims to use the proceeds of the share offering to fund investment in these areas, paying around £4.5 million to exercise this option.