Melbourne, May 01: Shares in Australia's first publicly listed brothel debuted on the country's stock market today and almost doubled in value, with some promotional help from former Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss. "How can you go wrong with sex?" Fleiss asked while visiting the city of Melbourne for the launch.
Shares at the daily planet brothel were offered at US$ 0.31 each, and opened 40 percent higher at US$ 0.43. By late trading, shares were up 90 percent to US$ 0.59 each.
The Melbourne-based brothel, open since 1975, raised US$2.2 million in its initial public offering, with one of the 600 new shareholders forking out US$627,000, chief executive Andrew Harris said.
Brothels are legal in Victoria state, where Melbourne is located. Harris said the company had plans to franchise the business in other Australian cities, and build a "mega" brothel in Sydney.
"Prostitution is completely decriminalised in Sydney and we are going to build a monster," the Harris was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Fleiss made international headlines several years ago when investigators accused her of arranging liaisons with prostitutes for a number of Hollywood celebrities and other jet-setters.
She was released from prison in 1999 after serving 21 months for money laundering, tax evasion and attempted pandering.
She's now been contracted to help the daily planet develop business ideas. Bureau Report