Rightmove to list on bourse in March, investors to part-divest holding |
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Thu, 16 Feb 2006 10:10
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LONDON: Britain's property website Rightmove is planning to list on the stock market in March. The company said it will offer compromise shares held by existing investors and there will be no new stocks issued.
The group's four main investors -- mortgage bank HBOS, estate agents Connells and Countrywide and Skipton Building Society, each with 30 per cent holding, and life insurer Royal & Sun Alliance with 10 per cent holding -- will sell a quarter of their total holding to staff, major City investors and estate agents who subscribe to the site.
Analysts said a 400-million-pound flotation can earn 100 million pounds in cash and 1.5 million pounds worth of shares for the four owners. Ed Williams, the company's chief executive, and co-founders Miles Shipside and Nick McKittrick, will each be awarded 1.5 million pounds worth of shares. All the three will remain with the company after its flotation.
The company's 200 plus employees will get 500 pounds in shares, with the company picking up their tax bill. They will have the choice to buy an additional 3,000 pounds worth of shares.
The 8,500 or so estate agency branches, 950 letting agents and property developers who use the site have also been invited to invest up to 3,000 pounds each in the float.
Rightmove provides information on estate agents' offerings online. It has contracts with 8,573 estate agency offices in the U.K. at the end of 2005, representing almost two thirds of the total estimated number of estate agency offices in England and Wales. In addition, it has contracts with 957 rental agents. It is estimated to have three quarters of the U.K. online property advertising market with 10 million individual users visiting the site every month.
Its sales for the year ended 31 December 2005 were at 18.2 million pounds against 9.2 million pounds in 2004, with an operating profit excluding development and float costs of 8.7 million pounds.
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Rightmove study finds house prices are going up 