This may be our answer!!
quote.bloomberg.com
Liberty Surf Hires Deutsche Bank to Advise on IPO (Update3)
Liberty Surf Hires Deutsche Bank to Advise on IPO (Update3)
(Closes share prices in 5th paragraph, adds X-Stream CEO
comment in 8th.)
Paris, Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Liberty Surf Groupe SA, a
French provider of free Internet services, said it hired Deutsche
Bank AG to advise on selling shares in France to fund European
expansion and better recruit staff.
The company, 45 percent-owned by Kingfisher Plc and 45
percent by Bernard Arnault's Europe At Web fund, is likely to sell
about 20 percent of the company, Chief Executive Pierre Besnainou
said at a press conference. He also said the company, whose sales
last year totaled 120 million francs ($18.8 million), expects to
become profitable in 2002. Arnault is chairman of LVMH Moet
Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.
Free Internet service companies have sprung up across Europe
following the pioneering success of Freeserve, the U.K.'s largest
Internet service. Kingfisher, which also owns the Darty appliance
chain in France and B&Q home-improvement stores in the U.K.,
started the Liberty Surf site last year to sell more goods as
Internet use surged.
``Like many of its competitors, Liberty Surf is considering
tapping the capital markets in order to accelerate its
international growth,' the company said. ``To evaluate this
option, Liberty Surf has asked Deutsche Bank to study the terms
and conditions entailed in listing its shares on a French
regulated market.'
Kingfisher shares fell 12 pence, or 2.1 percent, to 548p,
while LVMH shares rose 26 euros, or 6.1 percent, to 452. Arnault
has been making investments in the Internet through his own
company, rather than LVMH, so that he takes all the risk. Still,
shareholders of LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods company,
may benefit from the investments if there are opportunities for
linked business, LVMH has said.
Liberty Surf said its net worth was 700 million francs. Its
two main shareholders said they plan to maintain their stakes in
the business after the IPO.
The company also said today it has almost 610,000 subscribers
in France and is now the largest challenger to France Telecom SA
in providing Internet access. Besnainou said the company plans to
double its advertising spending in France this year.
Liberty Surf also agreed to buy 10 percent of X-Stream, a
closely held U.K. free Internet service provider, for $5 million
and plans to take control of the company. Closely held X-Stream
has 500,000 subscribers in the U.K. and 70,000 in Scandinavia,
Liberty Surf said.
Greg Sukornyk, chief executive of the X-Stream Network, told
Bloomberg News the acquisition would be completed ``within the
next two months or so.'
``We're in the U.K. and northern Europe and together we will
quickly be in seven or eight countries, which bodes well for
Liberty Surf and ourselves,' Sukornyk said. ``It's quite obvious
that there's heavy consolidation in this space.'
¸2000 Bloomberg L.P. |
