Vital Harvest’s IPO closes at the end of the week and it’s unusual: it’s allowing retail shareholders to easily participate in part of the offer.

The real estate investment trust is raising $185 million most from institutional investors, but has reserved $10 million for ordinary Joes.

Typically initial public offerings by mature, less risky companies are taken up by institutions and friends of the investment bank advising on the deal, says Australian Shareholders Association boss Judith Fox.

“It’s one of the things we’ve been concerned about for some years now,” Ms Fox told Stockhead.

“It’s particularly the large profitable companies that the investment banks offer access preferentially to professional shareholders and their institutional clients.”

>> Scroll down for a table showing how 83 ASX floats have performed in the past year

If retail shareholders do get a look in, it’s only because they are associated with the right broker which is handling the usually-small retail share allocation.

Vital Harvest isn’t acting out of altruism though.

Chair Liza Whitmore said the berry and citrus farmer was after stamp duty relief.

Victoria and South Australia said yes, but Tasmania stipulated that it would only do a tax deal if part of the IPO was thrown open to everyone in a general offer, rather than just through brokers.

The $175 million raised from institutions has already been sold and was oversubscribed. The $10 million retail offer closes on Friday. More info here.

Retail investors struggle for access to IPOs

The concern of the Shareholders Association is that retail investors are shunted into smaller and riskier investments when mature IPOs are pre-sold to institutions and professional investors — sometimes before the prospectus has even been issued.

A scan of the 45 or so IPOs listed on OnMarket, a platform which provides open, non-broker access to IPOs to retail investors, suggests only about eight have reasonable revenue figures or a profit.

Ben Bucknell, chief of IPO marketplace OnMarket, has  been lobbying for a rule change to give retail investors a minimum 25 per cent of shares offered in all initial public offers. Punters are locked out of two-thirds of IPOs, he says.

But he’s no closer to achieving his goal.

OnMarket is getting good traction among small IPOs and he says they have provided retail access to about a third of all IPOs since they launched in later 2015.

But Mr Bucknell, like Ms Fox, believes the retail end of the market is still being “dudded”.

The ASX was not able to respond to Stockhead queries before publication.

FOMO

How many of the top IPOs have retail investors missed out on this year?

The top performing IPOs in 2018 so far have been Adriatic Metals, ReadCloud, Star Combo, ClearVue Technologies, Eagle Mountain Mining, Galileo Mining, Keytone Dairy, Paygroup, Elixinol Global, and Pivotal Systems.

Of these, retail investors without a broker connection could have had a piece of Keytone and ReadCloud.

The others either specified that investors had to go through brokers, or did not say at all whether they where offering retail investors anything.

Mr Bucknell says it can be difficult to work out from a prospectus whether it’ll give an retail allocation. By law prospectuses have to include an application, but that is no assurance that there are share there for you.

Among the biggest IPOs — whether they got through or not — you’d have had to know the right broker for Prospa and Viva (ASX:VVR), even though the latter allocated $600 million to retail investors.

Constellation Resources (ASX:CR1) is only inviting “certain members of the public”, according to the prospectus.

Here’s table showing how 83 ASX floats have performed in the past year:

Scroll or swipe to reveal full table. Click on headings to sort

ASX code Company Price change since IPO Price Jul 24 (intraday) IPO price Market cap Listing date Raised Focus
CAG CAPE RANGE 4.75 1.15 0.2 $100.4m Nov 2017 $5.6m Fintech
TNO TANDO RESOURCES 2.83720930233 0.165 0.043 $26.6m Nov 2017 $4.5m Resources - vanadium, copper, zinc
AU8 AUMAKE 2.3125 0.265 0.08 $68.9m Oct 2017 $6m China-focused retailer
RCL READCLOUD 1.6 0.52 0.2 $44.0m Feb 2018 $6m Tech - education
ADT ADRIATIC METALS 1.25 0.45 0.2 $61.5m Apr 2018 $10m Resources - lead, silver, copper, gold
5GN 5G NETWORKS 1.2 0.55 0.25 $26.1m Nov 2017 $4m Tech - broadband
EM2 EAGLE MOUNTAIN 0.9 0.38 0.2 $35.2m Mar 2018 $8m Resources - copper
MRL MAYUR RES 0.875 0.75 0.4 $111.8m Sep 2017 $15.5m Resources - mineral sands
S66 STAR COMBO PHARMA 0.8 0.9 0.5 $72.5m May 2018 $5.8m Health - vitamins
GAL GALILEO MINING 0.8 0.36 0.2 $40.9m May 2018 $15m Resources - cobalt, nickel
KTD KEYTONE DAIRY 0.7 0.34 0.2 $53.3m Jul 2018 $15m Dairy
PPE PEOPLE INFRASTRUCTURE 0.65 1.65 1 $106.0m Nov 2017 $25m Workforce management
CPV CLEARVUE TECH 0.6 0.32 0.2 $32.8m May 2018 $5m Tech - power-generating glass
ROO ROOTS SUSTAINABLE 0.6 0.32 0.2 $20.5m Dec 2017 $5m AgTech
CXL CALIX 0.566037735849 0.83 0.53 $100.6m Jul 2018 $8m Water treatment
SP3 SPECTUR 0.525 0.305 0.2 $14.7m Aug 2017 $4.5m Tech - security cameras
EXL ELIXINOL GLOBAL 0.5 1.5 1 $153.4m Jan 2018 $20m Cannabis
PYG PAYGROUP 0.45 0.725 0.5 $37.5m May 2018 $8.5m Tech - finance
OKR OKAPI RESOURCES 0.425 0.285 0.2 $9.6m Sep 2017 $5m Resources - gold
PVS PIVOTAL SYSTEMS 0.424731182796 2.65 1.86 $293.0m Jul 2018 $53.5m Computer chip software
CWX CARAWINE RES 0.4 0.28 0.2 $15.9m Dec 2018 $7m Resources - copper, gold
RCW RIGHTCROWD 0.366666666667 0.41 0.3 $54.7m Sep 2017 $10m Tech - cyber security
IXU IXUP 0.325 0.265 0.2 $41.2m Nov 2017 $12.5m Tech - Collaboration software
KRX KOPPAR RESOURCES 0.325 0.265 0.2 $8.7m May 2018 $4.5m Resources - copper, zinc
TGO TRIMANTIUM 0.28 1.28 1 $121.4m Mar 2018 $70m Marketing
JLG JOHNS LYNG GROUP 0.25 1.25 1 $276.4m Oct 2017 $96m Builder
BC8 BLACK CAT 0.25 0.25 0.2 $13.7m Jan 2018 $6m Resources - gold
ABR AMERICAN PACIFIC 0.2 0.24 0.2 $41.7m Jul 2017 $15m Resources - lithium
NTD NATIONAL TYRE 0.185 1.185 1 $119.7m Dec 2017 $59m Auto - tyre and wheel seller
DXN DATA EXCHANGE 0.175 0.235 0.2 $42.8m Apr 2018 $16m Tech - cloud computing
TAO TAO COMMODITIES 0.15 0.23 0.2 $5.3m Apr 2018 $4.75m Resources - zinc, gold
TIN TNT MINES 0.15 0.23 0.2 $6.4m Nov 2017 $5.5m Resources - tungsten
PFP PROPEL FUNERAL 0.12962962963 3.05 2.7 $294.5m Nov 2017 $131.2m Funeral services
DBF DUXTON BROADACRE 0.04 1.56 1.5 $67.6m Feb 2018 $21.1m Grain industry
B2Y BOUNTY MINING 0.0285714285714 0.36 0.35 $145.5m Jun 2018 $18m Resources - coking coal
N27 NORTHERN COBALT 0.025 0.205 0.2 $9.4m Sep 2017 $4.2m Resources - cobalt
PGX PRIMERO GROUP 0.025 0.41 0.4 $60.5m Jul 2018 $25m Engineering
BAH BOJUN AGRICULTURE 0 0.3 0.3 $36.5m Dec 2017 $7.7m Beverages
RHY RHYTHM BIOSCIENCES 0 0.2 0.2 $20.2m Dec 2017 $9m Health - cancer diagnostics
STN SATURN METALS 0 0.2 0.2 $11.2m Mar 2018 $7m Resources - gold
VEA VIVA ENERGY 0 2.5 2.5 $4.9B Jul 2018 $2.6bn Energy
NES NELSON RESOURCES -0.025 0.195 0.2 $9.4m Dec 2017 $5m Resources - gold
A1C AIC RESOURCES -0.05 0.19 0.2 $14.3m Nov 2017 $10m Resources - gold
JAY JAYRIDE GROUP -0.06 0.47 0.5 $35.5m Jan 2018 $1.5m Tech - share-ride
SIL SMILES INCLUSIVE -0.07 0.93 1 $52.4m Apr 2018 $35m Health - dental chain
CP1 CANNPAL ANIMAL -0.075 0.185 0.2 $17.2m Oct 2017 $6m Cannabis
MKG MAKO GOLD -0.075 0.185 0.2 $12.0m Apr 2018 $6m Resources - gold
MMM MARLEY SPOON -0.09154929577460001 1.29 1.42 $149m Jul 2, 2018 $70m Dinner delivery
PKD PARKD -0.1 0.18 0.2 $13.5m Dec 6, 2017 $6m Construction - car parks
PRZ PARAZERO -0.125 0.175 0.2 $15.4m Jun 18, 2018 $5m Tech - drones
P2P P2P TRANSPORT -0.136363636364 1.14 1.32 $89.7m Dec 13, 2017 $29.2m Fleet mangement
IHR INTELLIHR -0.15 0.255 0.3 $26.5m Jan 23, 2018 $4.5m Tech - HR
G1A GALENA MINING -0.15 0.17 0.2 $55.5m Sep 7, 2017 $6m Resources - base metals
SCT SCOUT SECURITY -0.15 0.17 0.2 $17.3m Aug 25, 2017 $5m Tech - home security
WOA WIDE OPEN AGRICULTURE -0.15 0.17 0.2 $12.0m Jul 6, 2018 $5m AgTech
GAS STATE GAS -0.175 0.165 0.2 $21.6m Oct 10, 2017 $5.2m Resources - gas
WND WINDLAB -0.1975 1.605 2 $107.9m Aug 23, 2017 $50m Energy - wind farmer
AS1 ANGEL SEAFOOD -0.2 0.16 0.2 $20.1m Feb 21, 2018 $8m Seafood
SIS SIMBLE SOLUTIONS -0.2 0.16 0.2 $14.4m Feb 22, 2018 $7.5m Tech - Internet of Things
BGT BIO-GENE TECH -0.25 0.15 0.2 $19.2m Nov 29, 2017 $7.1m Health - bug killer
BEM BLACKEARTH -0.275 0.145 0.2 $8.5m Jan 2018) $5.4m Resources - graphite
AX8 ACCELERATE RES -0.3 0.14 0.2 $6.4m Feb 14, 2018 $5m Resources - cobalt gold, copper
LRM LUSTRUM MINERALS -0.3 0.14 0.2 $5.6m Nov 15, 2017 $5m Resources - coal
RGL RIVERSGOLD -0.3 0.14 0.2 $13.3m Oct 10, 2017 $6.1m Resources - gold
NC6 NANOLLOSE -0.325 0.135 0.2 $10.1m Oct 16, 2017 $5m Tech - plant-free fibre
CRD CREDIBLE LABS -0.330578512397 0.81 1.21 $202.6m Dec 8, 2017 $67m Online loans
OGA OCEAN GROWN ABALONE -0.34 0.165 0.25 $28.7m Nov 14, 2017 $10m Seafood
CG1 CARBONXT GROUP -0.392857142857 0.425 0.7 $33.1m Jan 23, 2018 $10m CleanTech
BYH BRYAH RESOURCES -0.4 0.12 0.2 $6.8m Oct 17, 2017 $5m Resources - copper, gold, manganese
CCG COMMSCHOICE -0.42 0.145 0.25 $15.8m Dec 21, 2017 $7.5m IT services
SWF SELFWEALTH -0.425 0.115 0.2 $13.6m Nov 23, 2017 $7.3m Broker
RZI RAIZ INVEST -0.438888888889 1.01 1.8 $61.6m Jun 21, 2018 $15.1m Microinvesting
TIE TIETTO MINERALS -0.45 0.11 0.2 $23.9m Jan 18, 2018 $6m Resources - gold
GO2 GO2 PEOPLE -0.475 0.105 0.2 $12.4m Oct 31, 2017 $10m Tech - HR
EN1 ENGAGE:BDR -0.5 0.1 0.2 $26.4m Dec 14, 2017 $10m Marketing
NUS NUSANTARA RESOURES -0.535714285714 0.195 0.42 $24.6m Aug 2, 2017 $16.2m Resources - gold
CY5 CYGNUS GOLD -0.54 0.092 0.2 $6.4m Jan 15, 2018 $6m Resources - gold
POD PODIUM MINERALS -0.625 0.075 0.2 $7.2m Feb 28, 2018 $5.5m Resources - Platinum metals
SDX SIENNA CANCER -0.64 0.072 0.2 $13.0m Aug 3, 2017 $4.6m Health - cancer
FDX FRONTIER DIAMOND -0.67 0.066 0.2 $13.3m Jan 5, 2018 $4m Resources - diamond
WHK WHITEHAWK -0.7 0.06 0.2 $4.4m Jan 24, 2018 $4.5m Tech - cyber security
CLI CROPLOGIC -0.775 0.045 0.2 $5.5m Sep 12, 2017 $8m AgTech
RD1 REGISTRY DIRECT -0.92 0.016 0.2 $1.5m Nov 1, 2017 $2m Tech - Company registry
Wordpress Table Plugin