Company founder and jetpack inventor Glenn Martin yesterday said the Christchurch-based Martin Aircraft Company (Mac) was in the process of appointing advisers and lawyers and talking to the New Zealand Stock Exchange ahead of an initial public offering (IPO).
The company has developed a jetpack - a unit which straps on to the back of a pilot and allows sustained personal jet flight - but it was at the stage of moving from developer to a aviation manufacturer.
Mr Martin said the company had come through the Christchurch earthquake relatively unscathed, and it would only delay plans by a couple of weeks.
Development of the jetpack had for 30 years been funded to the tune of about $10 million by family, friends and a small group of investors including Number 8 Ventures, but "the goal has always been to float on the share market via an IPO at some stage."
He said Mac was taking names of potential future investors keen for the technology to stay in New Zealand or others who were interested in a novel product.
Mr Martin said the company had grown rapidly in the past few years, with the product proven, intellectual property protected and in the past 18 months a market for an initial 6500 units had materialised without any promotion.
Chief executive Richard Lauder said last month that Mac had entered a joint venture with a "large overseas state-owned-enterprise" to produce 500 of the $130,000 ($US100,000) machines for search and rescue and it had been approached by other government agencies wanting to use versions of the jetpack for anti-terrorism, border-patrol and medical-response applications.
A large unnamed overseas military has suggested 11 different variations, including as an unmanned aerial vehicle for which the company has converted a unit for testing.
Mr Lauder said there have also been some questionable inquiries, including one from "a very earnest potential customer from a notorious South American city, who wanted 20 jetpacks `to air freight product to the United States,' clearly a very short conversation."
Regardless of the IPO, potential buyers can order their jetpack by placing a $5000 deposit with the company, which is held in a trust or escrow account, booking a production position.
