Feeling like a kid on Christmas morning :D Won't be long til we...

Feeling like a kid on Christmas morning Won't be long til we find out if we get a shiny new tech toy to cherish over the coming months, or a lump of coal. I'm feeling the former

Anyways, noticed some more media coverage in The Australian on this one.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...t/news-story/b7a4feb9704a89e351754769430c4b60
Underwater drones float Aquabotix’s boat

Aquabotix will become the world’s only publicly traded underwater drone firm when it lands on the bourse today, raising $7 million in an over-subscribed offer that closed over a week ahead of time.
Chairman Peter James, who also chairs Macquarie Telecom, DroneShield and nearmap and was a non-executive director of iiNet before it was acquired by TPG, said military tensions around the globe played a role in the success of the IPO.

“No one at Aquabotix wishes for war to break out, and we are certainly not in the business of death riding any of the current international situations. Our business is set to take advantage of a number of global trends of which military spend is only one. The aquaculture, research, infrastructure and leisure markets remain firmly in our sites,” Mr James said. “The use of drones in any theatre of war — aquatic, terrestrial or aerial — it makes sense to replace humans with machines where it is tactically advantageous and cost effective.”

Drone technology has become a focus for increasing military spending, and the company has shipped about 350 drones since sales commenced in 2011.

“The world’s militaries use the most autonomous underwater vehicles. They’re used for underwater mine mitigation, intelligence collection, surveillance, and reconnaissance,” Mr James said. The US Navy has bought Aquabotix’s products as has the Coast Guard.

Aquabotix, founded in 2011 by former US Navy executive Durval Tavares, will list on the ASX with an issue price of 20c valuing the company at $27m.

Its board includes Jay Cohen, a former US Navy chief of naval research and US Department of the Navy chief technology officer, and former Broadpsectrum executive Brendan Martin. “The ASX is very competitive internationally when it comes to small caps,” Mr James said. “The degree of oversubscription for the IPO is testament to the Australian investment community’s appetite for these stories.”

Long Hill Capital, a US-based institutional investor that is also the largest investor in DroneShield, owns just under 40 per cent of the company with the founder and several original shareholders owning just under 40 per cent together.

The company underpinning the offer, OnMarkets BookBuild, said Aquabotix was the hottest IPO it had seen in the past year.

“The IPO closed in record time, with our allocation being more than three times oversubscribed,” said Nick Motteram, managing director at OnMarket.

“OnMarket members have a significant appetite for quality tech business with strong growth prospects, and UUV Aquabotix clearly met this expectation.”