Price website founder snubs takeover bid
Moneysupermarket.com shares jump 45 per cent after offer by mystery buyer
Top site Moneysupermarket.com saw its shares rocket 45 per cent yesterday after it dismissed a bid approach.
The popular website, which lets users compare finance and travel prices, confirmed in a statement that CEO and cofounder Simon Nixon had received an initial approach regarding a possible offer for his 54 per cent stake.
There was no hint as to where the approach came from but City sources speculated that Google, the internet search engine group, might be an interested player.
The jump in the company’s share price, up 22.1 per cent to 84.25p, puts the value of the website at £503.1m, compared to yesterday’s closing valuation of £342m.
However, the company’s shares are still down 40 per cent on its July 2007 flotation price of 170p. The float was the largest internet IPO since Google listed in 2004, but the company has suffered from investor worries over the decline in the UK mortgage and loan markets. It was hit badly when its biggest products provider – Barclays’ secured loans business FirstPlus – said it would stop accepting new business on 9 August.
News of the approach is the latest signal that buyers could return to the financial sector. Continuing reports of interest in specialist mortgage lender Paragon and even in HBOS, whose shares jumped yesterday on speculation of interest from a global bank, suggest some investors believe the troubled sector has reached the bottom.