Tegel shares close up on first day

(File)
(File)

Shares in Tegel, the country's biggest chicken producer, ended the first day's trading up 8 cents from their listing price of $1.55 on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Just after 11am, once the company started trading, shares were priced at $1.71, up 10 percent. They later pulled back to $1.63, but were still up 5 percent for the day.

It's the first major listing on the NZX. The only other listing this year was by Oceania Natural on the fledgling NXT market.

Tegel has also listed on the Australian Stock Market (ASX).

By becoming a public company, Tegel has been able to reduce its debt and provide funds for expansion into Asian markets.

At $1.55 a share, the company was valued at $550 million when listed.

Major shareholder Claris Investments will retain a 45 percent stake in the company following the listing. Claris is the investment vehicle for private equity company Affinity.

Tegel has four major processing plants in New Zealand and 1700 employees.

Newshub.