Iatia makes an auspicious ASX debut

It might not have been quite as exhilarating as his former life as a fighter pilot, but Iatia managing director Philippe Cussinet said the float of his company today was pretty exciting nonetheless.

Optical technologies group Iatia, now also known by its Australian Stock Exchange moniker of IAT, started life in the health and biotechnology index at 11am.

In the pre-open, investors who missed out on the over-subscribed public offer were lining up to buy, with some willing to pay up to 40 cents for the shares, which listed at 25 cents.

And when the clock struck float time, the market cleared with 26 trades turning over about 300,000 shares.

Cussinet said that with the onerous task of listing now behind it, the company could focus on its international expansion.

"It is very exciting and positive and I am impressed by the number of buyers. It's a very healthy sign," Cussinet said. "We are now going to focus on the things that we outlined in our prospectus."

He said this included adding an office in Asia to its existing offices in Australia and the United States, as well as further product developments based on its platform technology.

Iatia holds the global licensing rights to quantitative phase imaging (QPI) technology, which is based on an algorithm developed by University of Melbourne researcher Keith Nugent.

The technology, which the company claims to be the only one of its type in the world, is said to enable the digital construction and manipulation of images without the need for special optics equipment.

Iatia closed its public offering closed two days early on March 18 after investors bought up the 20 million shares on offer, helping the company raise $5 million.

The capital raised, together with funding of $6 million raised from private investors last year, will be put towards Iatia's commercialisation program.

Iatia's founding investor and deputy chairman, Vincent Thiang, who coincidentally also celebrated his birthday today, said he felt privileged to be involved in the listing of Iatia.

Thiang made the event a family affair, thanking daughter Angie for her encouragement and son Felix, who is also on the Iatia board, for his commitment and diligence.

"One of my reasons in starting Iatia has been for Angie and Felix, and the reason for doing it in Australia is because this is our new home," he said.

"This will not be the last investment in Australia the Thiang family will be undertaking, and we are looking at other investments to assist Iatia."

At the time of writing, Iatia was trading at 27 cents on a volume of 953,000 shares.