* IPO would give company A$1.3 bln market cap
* Company sees industry sales growing in double digits for
years
* Half its subscribers are in India; is targeting emerging
markets
(Recasts throughout, adds analyst quote)
By Byron Kaye
MELBOURNE, June 1 (Reuters) - Australian music streamer
Guvera Ltd, which competes with Apple Inc AAPL.O , Spotify Ltd
and Pandora Media Inc P.N , said it plans to raise up to A$80
million ($58.05 million) in a listing to bankroll an ambitious
expansion in developing markets.
In a listing prospectus lodged on Wednesday, the company
with operations from India to Russia said it aims to sell 80
million shares for A$1 each to fund growth in emerging markets.
The company added that post listing, it will have a market
capitalisation of A$1.3 billion, based on the number of shares
to be kept by existing shareholders of the company started in
the beachfront city of Gold Coast in 2008.
That would make Guvera the biggest Australian player in the
global music streaming industry, which it said is forecast to
grow revenue by more than 10 percent a year until at least 2019,
and which has traditionally been dominated by U.S. heavyweights.
The Australian company said it doesn't charge most users and
gets most of its revenue from advertising. It plans to build on
its current base of 14 million subscribers, Guvera said.
"That sort of model, if it works, is quite lucrative because
you're getting a lot of operating leverage in the business and
the cost of adding a subscriber is minimal," said Daniel
Mueller, senior analyst at Forager Funds Management Pty Ltd.
The company said Australian subscribers grew more than
ten-fold from January to December last year, and that its India
subscribers grew from 1.7 million to 7 million from January to
May 2015. It did not give further growth figures or India.
It said 2015 was the first year in more than two decades
when recording industry revenue rose globally, driven by a 45
percent rise in streaming music revenue as more people took to
the service thanks to faster internet and better access to
smartphones.
Still, corporate adviser D H Flinders Ltd, which is running
the offering, will have to reassure investors about Guvera's
prospects given the prospectus said it "has a history of
operating losses and expects operating losses and negative
operating cash flow to continue in the future".
The prospectus added that the company has no immediate plans
to pay dividends, and forecast a net loss of A$55.7 million for
fiscal 2016, better than the previous year's A$81.1 million
loss.
($1 = 1.3782 Australian dollars)
(Editing by Stephen Coates and Muralikumar Anantharaman)