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Microcap & Penny Stocks : XSNI - X-Stream Network -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: donkeyman who wrote (2279)	7/22/1999 10:33:00 PM
From: Troutbum	Respond to of 3519

News on Freeserve from ft.com: FREESERVE: Flotation 10 times subscribed By Vincent Boland and James Mackintosh Freeserve yesterday began offering free live share prices through its personal finance web site in an aggressive attempt to increase usage, as it emerged that the flotation of the company is at least 10 times subscribed. Institutional investors have applied for 10 times more shares than were offered in Freeserve, bankers said, as applications closed for shares in the UK's first big internet flotation. The company and its advisers continued to meet investors and more meetings are planned today. Freeserve shares were trading in the grey market at 192p to 199p late yesterday, ahead of their official listing in London and New York on Monday, according to City Index, a spread-betting firm. "There have been some fairly significant orders from the US and Europe and they are still roadshowing there," said a banker familiar with the initial public offering. The order book remains open for investors who have one-on-one meetings with Freeserve. The banker said the scarcity of stock - only 20 per cent of the company is being floated by Dixons, its parent, at a price range of 130p to 150p - was one of the main reasons for the heavy institutional interest. It was unclear how many retail investors had applied for the shares ahead of yesterday's 1pm deadline. Meanwhile, Freeserve's personal finance web site, UK-Invest, became the first to give away live share prices in an attempt to compete with other free internet service providers and financial web sites. UK-Invest is run by GlobalNet Financial.com, a US company in which Freeserve earlier this year bought a 13 per cent stake for $14.8m (£9.4m). The new service comes shortly before a new ISP, themutual.net, begins offering a similar service. Until now, the only free quotes available have been delayed by 15 minutes. The moves by both ISPs illustrate the fierce competition for users among financial web sites, most of which are loss-making. The stock exchange will charge both UK-Invest and themutual.net every time a user asks for a live share price quote.