Investors open up

There’s little doubt that Australia in enjoying a little economic winter sunshine right now. Consumer and business confidence is up, house prices keep soaring, unemployment remains under control (for now at least) and we’re still not in recession.

It appears all this cheery news is helping put the smile back on the dial of sharemarket investors. As I write this morning, the sharemarket is up for the fifth straight day – not bad considering most analysts are tipping we are in for a very tough reporting season.

A number of smaller listed companies have taken advantage of the improved sharemarket conditions to raise a bit of capital to pay down debt, improve working capital and, in some cases, make an acquisition.

A great example of this is digital services company Webfirm, which today announced it has raised $3.6 million, including almost $1 million from Chris Morris, the founder of share registry giant Computershare.

Webfirm immediately announced it had spent $1.5 million to take a 20% stake in AdSlot, a company which builds and operates electronic marketplaces for publishers to sell advertising space.

Webfirm will also use some fresh capital to expand its overseas operations and improve its working capital position.

The Webfirm raising, which was oversubscribed, highlights there still is money around for growing companies. It also shows there are wealthy angel investors around willing to take a punt.

Both are good signs that we are on the road to recovery.