Push-me, pull-you change as eVentures can't give away cash

Friday 23rd February 2001

Cindy Mitchener

By Nick Stride

After a disappointing first year listed e-commerce investor eVentures said yesterday it was still looking for homes for its cash mountain.

The company early last year raised $60 million, half from local investors and companies and half from News Corp and Japanese giant Softbank.

To date it has made only two investments - in online financial services provider E-Loan and direct marketing company MessageMedia. It had planned to make six investments.

The E-Loan operation has since been scaled back and a majority position sold to The Warehouse.

Chief executive Cindy Mitchener said yesterday that evaluation of two logistics and supply chain management products, one export and one import-oriented, were in the due diligence phase. EVentures had not yet decided whether it would invest in them. The company had "the majority" of the $60 million it raised last year in cash.

Although the share price has more than halved from its 70c high soon after last May's sharemarket float, Ms Mitchener said that only reflected the fortunes of internet-based stocks in general. "In fact we're the second best-performing stock in our peer group," she said.

Late last year eVentures abandoned plans to invest in shopping site Buy.com and games site Contest2win.

Ms Mitchener said the strategy had changed from a "push" model in which News Corp and Softbank would use eVentures to launch into New Zealand products they were developing globally to a "pull" model in which eVentures would select products it judged suitable for the New Zealand market. Eventures' shareholders include Telecom, The Warehouse, and sharebroker JB Were, which each hold five million shares.

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