Moneysupermarket.com plans £1bn floatation

Finance and travel price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com plans to float in London in July.

The move is likely to value the company at as much as £1bn, making it the UK’s biggest technology listing in almost seven years, according to media reports.

Further, reports added that Simon Nixon, Chief Executive of price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com, is set to make around £200m when the company floats next month.

Nixon reportedly paid himself £15m last year and £11m in 2005. He expected a pay cut after the float. “I don’t think I’d be able to get away with that in a plc environment,” he said.

Nixon recently bought a 45 percent stake in the company from his estranged co-founder Duncan Cameron for £162m. That left Cameron with a five percent stake and Nixon with around 90 percent of the company, which he will reduce to just over 50 percent following the float, as per the informatio available.

Moneysupermarket.com will raise around £180m of new money in the flotation to pay down the debt raised to buy Cameron’s stake, and fees associated with the listing.

The company’s majority owner and CEO said the initial public offering could pave the way for acquisitions at home or in Europe to sustain its pacey growth. Nixon said he was considering launching other price comparison channels - aside from the current travel, finance and home services sites - and expanding into other regions, such as Germany, France and Spain.

Moneysupermarket.com gets revenue from banks, airlines and other providers when its price comparison site directs a user to the provider's site for them to make a booking. It also gets advertising income.

The company runs sites including money, insurance, travel and home services. Its revenues rose 54 percent last year to 105 million pounds, but pretax profit fell by a fifth to 11.7 million. Revenues rose to almost 40 million pounds in the first quarter, generating a profit of 9.6 million.

Credit Suisse is adviser to the company and bookrunner for the IPO. Lehman Brothers is co-lead manager.