Xero reports $85m of cash in first cashflow report

Accounting software firm Xero had $85 million of cash at the end of 2012 after raising $60 million in a private placement in December.

The figure is revealed in its first quarterly cashflow report, which is required by the ASX. Xero took up a secondary listing on ASX in November.

The report shows net operating and investing cash outflows for the quarter of $6 million.

Xero spent $6.48 million on staff costs in the quarter and $1.05 million on advertising and marketing.

Its receipts from customers were $10.12 million in the quarter and $25.96 million in the nine months to Dec. 31.

Earlier the company reported revenue of $17.3 million in accounts for the six months to Sept. 30 and operating expenses of $22.8 million. It said it had annualised committed revenue of $38.7 million.

Xero has about 3,000 shareholders and 48 percent of its shares are held by directors and staff.

In the capital raising, Peter Thiel-backed Valar Ventures of San Francisco invested $24 million and Massachusetts-based Matrix Capital Management invested $58 million. They also purchased collectively $22 million of existing shares from Xero's three largest shareholders

The company is loss-making at present, judging it better to invest in accelerated growth to capture market share in the global market for online, cloud-based business systems.

The shares fell 0.7 percent to $7.25 in trading today.

BusinessDesk