Simon Nixon, the founder of moneysupermarket.com, is set to reap up to £126.6 million when the price comparison site floats on the London Stock Exchange later this month, valued at between £841 million and £1 billion.
The company unveiled a price range of between 170p and 210p per share this morning as it prepared to visit institutions to drum up interest in subscribing to the flotation.
Mr Nixon will sell 60.3 million shares when the business comes to market in the final week of July. As well as the £126.6 million that he could gain, if moneysupermarket.com lists at the top of the range, Mr Nixon could also net an additional £64.2 million if the company’s float is over subscribed, bringing his total gain to £190.8 million.
Duncan Cameron, previously the other major shareholder in moneysupermarket.com alongside Mr Nixon, will sell off his entire shareholding in the company, giving him a windfall of up to £47.2 million. Last month, Mr Cameron sold the majority of his stake in the business for £162 million. Mr Cameron and Mr Nixon have not spoken to each other since 2001 after a disagreement about strategy.
moneysupermarket.com is hoping to raise £180 million through the share offer, some of which will be used to pay back the sum borrowed to buy out Mr Cameron.
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The business is offering 41 per cent of the business to potential investors and Mr Nixon will retain nearly a 50 per cent stake in the company going forward, while senior managers will continue to hold shares in group. Mr Nixon will be prevented from selling his stake for three years.
If moneysupermarket.com lists at the top end of the range, at 210p, its value will be around ten times sales of £104 million for the 12 months to December 31, 2006.
Moneysupermarket.com also announced today that Michael Wemms, a former executive director at Tesco, the supermarket giant, has been appointed as the company’s senior non-executive director. He will join Gerald Corbett, the former chief executive at Railtrack and previous chairman at Woolworths, who is the chairman at moneysupermarket.com.
Mr Nixon began his business in 1993 for £4,000 before transforming his company into moneysupermarket.com in 1999.