Rode and Freedman Group boss eyeing potential ASX listing

The mercurial boss behind Rode is by no means a conventional businessman, but recent acquisitions in the US are paving the way to the bourse.

Peter Freedman at Rode’s manufacturing facility in Silverwater in Sydney's western suburbs. Picture: Britta Campion

Peter Freedman wants to “have his cake and eat it”, with the Freedman Group’s latest US acquisition upping its audio recording industry market share and hopefully paving the way to an ASX listing.

The driving force behind Australian microphone success story Rode, Mr Freedman doesn’t act like your typical business leader – posing like Ozzy Osbourne for Forbes and shelling out $9m for Kurt ­Cobain’s guitar – and, like him, a listed Freedman Group would offer investors an alternative to other big companies on the ASX boards.

“I look at all this ‘software-y’ stuff and it’s just shit,” an unfiltered Freedman told The Australian. “All this 50 times (earnings multiples), 100 times, go away. Mine is real, we make stuff, man, you can’t take that away. All these people promising smart homes, but the smart home is bullshit right now.

“Invest in what I do, you’re not gonna lose your dough.”

From humble beginnings as a family-run electronics store, and after a rocky first decade of business when he faced bankruptcy, Freedman has built his company on the back of the ubiquitous Rode stable of microphones seen in every music classroom in Australia. New product sales are booming thanks to the rise of ­professional and semi-professional content creation on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and the rest.

Financial records show in the 2024 financial year the Freedman Group logged revenue of $371.8m with assets of $636.4m.

And within the past fortnight, Freedman added to his stable of companies, buying New Mexico-based Lectrosonics for an undisclosed sum. “It’s funny, they’re real country people and don’t want anybody to know they’ve got any coin,” he said of the deal.

Lectrosonics president Wes Herron, left, and Freedman Group founder and owner Peter Freedman. Picture: Supplied

Freedman says he “nearly fell out of his chair” when he learned the business was up for sale.

Rode manufactures in Sydney but sells 30 per cent of its product in the US, and with the Lectrosonics acquisition came a big parcel of land and a factory he knew would further establish his foothold in America at a time of significant trade uncertainty due to President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff wars.

Based in Rio Ranche on the outskirts of state capital Albuquerque, Lectrosonics manufactures state-of-the-art ultra high frequency radio and audio equipment, with its products used on film and television sets across the US and the world, such as Breaking Bad, which was set and filmed in Albuquerque.

Don’t expect to be seeing Peter Freedman on set anytime soon, though: “I keep away from that shit,” he laughed. “Give me the money, spare me the glory.”

The Lectrosonics acquisition comes not long after Freedman Group acquired another US business, speaker and speaker accoutrements maker Mackie, for $200m in late 2023.

And he’s got plans for more ­acquisitions, hence planning an IPO to drum up more capital, but is staying mum on those for now.

The Sydney billionaire ranked No.114 on this year’s edition of The List: Australia’s Richest 250, published by The Australian earlier this year, with a net worth of $1.5bn. He self-values the company he still 100 per cent owns at $2bn and is bullish on institutional investors coming on board if a listing goes ahead, despite the well-documented lack of recent IPOs in Australia.

“Institutionals and regular people are going to be interested because it’s solid. There’s no risk, it’s not dirty, it’s all good and it’s got great profit and great potential for growth,” he said.

And with former treasurer and US ambassador Joe Hockey now chairing the board, Freedman Group has the “world standard governance” needed to list. Mr Freedman sees the potential listing coming in three to four years.

He says he’s been offered big money for his business, and despite that once being “the dream”, he wants to see the business he built grow far beyond what he once imagined it could become.

“(When I was offered to sell it) I thought, wow, I’ve made it,” he said. “Because that was the dream, of any businessman, you build it and you get a big cheque.

“And then I thought ‘f..k’, I nearly started crying. I can’t do it. I want to have my cake and eat it too.”

But how will he go relinquishing full ownership of a company he has fully owned for most of his adult life?

Freedman says he “has to get used to it” in order to list. “I’m 67 now and it’s moving fast, I’ve seen people who don’t let it go and then it turns to shit. I don’t want that to happen, but we’re not going to lose the magic we have.

“It’s not going to be big investors saying ‘well, we’re involved now so it’s going to be this, this and this’. The company will just be bigger.”