QXL.com Ltd, the privately-held online auctioneer that is taking on eBay Inc in Europe, will today reveal the share price range for its long-awaited initial public offering. As we predicted, the resulting valuation of the company is expected to be much lower than the 700m pounds ($1.13bn) reported in July and is likely to be roughly in the 250-350m pound ($405-568m) range, according to analysts.
The reduction in expectations is partly a result of virtual internet service provider Freeserve Plc’s poor performance since its IPO in August (see separate story) as well as bad showings from smaller net stocks such as The eXchange Holdings Plc. It would appear that British investors do not yet have the same appetite for internet-related IPOs as their American counterparts. After its brokering of Freeserve, Credit Suisse First Boston Corp will act as lead advisor to QXL for the Nasdaq/London Stock Exchange dual listing.
