ZipTel lists on ASX after completing reverse takeover

International pre-paid travel sim provider AussieSim has begun trading on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) as ZipTel after completing the reverse takeover of sports merchandise company, Skywards.

In January, Skywards entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100 percent of AussieSim — effectively allowing it to list on the ASX, leveraging Skywards' existing listing.

As part of the process, ZipTel was able to raise beyond the maximum amount of AU$5 million, which was the company said was due to "strong support received from a number of prominent institutional investors".

Announcements about the intended takeover was initially made in May when the company had a trading halt, and the oversubscribed offering was announced.

Co-founder of AussieSim and ZipTel CEO Bert Mondello said the focus now for the company is to increase its market awareness and growth of its AussieSim Brand.

"With our shares commencing trading today on the ASX and with our recent successful oversubscribed $5m capital raising behind us, ZipTel is now fully funded to pursue our growth strategies in the worldwide mobile roaming sales market which is forecast to grow 20 percent per annum for the next three years and exceed US$80 billion by 2017," he said.

"We look forward to rolling out a series of marketing initiatives over the next six months so that our new shareholders may benefit from our exposure to this global growth market."

The company said it will focus on growing AussieSim's sales through various marketing initiatives, including increasing its online accessibility through search engine optimisation and increasing the number of retail outlets across Australia.

Along with this, the company plans to invest in the development of its mobile based VOIP application, ZipT, designed to allow users to make international calls from their mobile phones. It's scheduled for a September launch, and key distribution agreements with Mpire Network and AppPharm have already been signed.