Media monitor iSentia has made an impressive stock market debut, with its shares rising nearly 20 per cent above their issue price.
Shares in the company, which was previously known as Media Monitors, opened trading at $2.45, 41 cents above the issue price of $2.04.
The stock surged 39 cents, or 19.12 per cent, to close at $2.43.
iSentia was among the most traded stocks, with its market cap hitting $486 million.
iSentia dominates Australia's media monitoring market, providing information from various media sources to alert business and government clients to what is being said about their organisations, competitors and industry.
The company uses software and other systems to capture and interpret data from more than 5,500 mainstream media outlets, 55,000 online news sources and 3.4 million user-generated content sources on Facebook, Twitter and Weibol.
Clients include Microsoft, Nike, Coca-Cola and Samsung and most of the top 100 companies listed on the ASX.
It also operates in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam and has an emerging presence China.
In its prospectus, iSentia said demand for media intelligence services in the Asia-Pacific region was expected to grow strongly over 2013-2016, especially in the online and social media segment.
It has forecast a net profit of $11.9 million in 2014, up from $7 million last year, and expects to start paying dividends next year.
Isentia issued 139 million shares to raise $283.5 million under an initial public offer.
The company has 200 million shares in total. It was floated by private equity outfit Quadrant Funds, which retains a 25 per cent stake.
Chief executive John Croll also holds a four per cent stake, which lifted in paper value by more than $3 million to $19.4 million based on iSentia's first day of trading.
iSentia shares are trading on a deferred settlement basis until Wednesday.
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