MELBOURNE, Australia -- Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss helped to kick off a historic day on Australia's stock market Thursday.

It's the first time that shares in a brothel have been listed on the exchange.

Shares of The Daily Planet were offered at 31 cents each, and debuted higher at 43 cents. By late trading, shares were up 90 percent to 59 cents each.


The chief executive of The Daily Planet said the Melbourne-based brothel raised more than $2 million in its initial public offering.

He said the company plans to franchise the business in other Australian cities and build a "mega" brothel in Sydney.

Wow prostitution is legal in Australia. I didn't know that.

prostitution is legal in almost every country in the world, except for the U.S.A. and Saudi Arabia.

[Gomer Pyle] Well, Golleee! [/Gomer Pyle]

I cant wait till is splits. [ba-ding!]

So, can I buy stock or is that illegal?

If you do, would that make you a pimp?

Are you saying I would have to have a purple car with gold wheels and wear a yellow suit and hat with rhinestones?

I don't look good in yellow.

Its stll legal in Nevada USA.

Actually, the shares are for a shell company which owns the building the brothel is located in. The brothel business is linked to the shell company, but the shares are in the company which owns the building and earns it's money through leasing the building to the brothel business. Any dividends from the shares are from the lease payments for the building, not directly from the brothel itself.

Does this mean the Annual Stockholders Report will have to be mailed in a brown wrapper?