3D Group to go Public Via Reverse Merger Onto Australian Securities Exchange

Last month we did a story on a little, relatively unknown Australian company called 3D Group, who was thinking quite big when it came to 3D printing. At the Inside 3D Printing Conference in Melbourne, Australia last month, the company showed off their ‘Mammoth 3D Printer‘. The name says it all, it is a gigantic machine, capable of printing objects which are 1275mm x 1275mm x 1275mm or 50 inches square in size.

Despite their innovative thinking, and patent-pending technology, any company trying to sell printers this large need substantial capital backing them. That’s why today they announced that they will be going public on the Australian Securities Exchange, via a reverse merger with a beer company, none-the-less. Doing so will give them a platform to raise capital for expanding their business operations. The fact that it was a beer company doesn’t matter though. Let me explain…

For those of you who are involved in finance, you know that a reverse merger is sometimes the quickest, cheapest way to take a company public. We see it happen all the time within the U.S. markets, as companies can’t afford the expenses of an initial public offering, and can take advantage of the framework that already exists within a publicly traded shell. 3D Group will be merging into the shell of a company called OZ Brewing (ASX:OZB). Basically Oz Brewing has very little, in terms of business, taking place within their company.  They will be acquiring 3D Group in exchange for 1.4 billion shares of Oz Brewing stock, plus 750 million share options.

What this will do, is provide the Owners of 3D Group a solid majority in the company.  Once this acquisition is final, there will be just over 1.8 billion shares outstanding, with the old shareholders of Oz Brewing owning just 413 million of them.

“3D Group wants to become a leader in the additive manufacturing sector, promoting the take up of the technology and associated services in Australia by utilizing Australian know-how and ingenuity, re-engaging the manufacturing sector and by offering ‘tech’ intellectual capacity the opportunity to work and develop new businesses around this disruptive technology here in Australia rather than in other parts of the world,” Oz Brewing told its shareholders in s statement.

The company has been on a role lately, recently partnering with Kibaran, a copper and graphite mine, looking to develop technology capable of printing objects out of the super-material graphene.

“If something can be developed that does marry 3D print technology with graphene, then it will definitely be a game-changer in terms of building things like electrical devices,” said 3D Group managing director Frank Pertile, earlier this year. “The prospects and potential of the incorporation of graphene into the existing devices and technologies is enormous.”

In the immediate future, 3D Group expects to realize revenue via sales of their large format Mammoth 3D Printer, as well as their various service offerings. In the future they hope to expand their retail kiosk concept, as well as offer educational programs, and build out their online marketplace.

Shares of Oz Brewing ended trading today at $0.011 per share, putting the market cap of the combined entity at approximately $18 million, once the deal is final. Discuss 3D Group’s decision to go public in the 3D Group forum thread on 3DPB.com.