British real estate portal Zoopla Property Group was valued at over $1.5 billion in its initial public offering in London, pricing its flotation lower than expected as the company bowed to market pressure.
The company priced its shares at £2.20 each, which is at the lower end of the expected initial share price range of £2 to £2.50 each. The price gave the company market capitalization of £918.8 million, or around $1.56 billion.
The price of Zoopla shares then rose over 4 percent after its debut, climbing to £2.30 each.
The initial public offering was launched amid growing concerns over the booming housing market in Britain. Financial executives in the country have recently said that the country needs new lending guidelines to decrease the risks that the market may impose on the growth of the economy and shrinking unemployment.
The I.P.O. of Zoopla "has been caught marginally offside by the Bank of England flagging that the housing market must be dampened. This explains their sensible 'lower half' pricing," says Bruce Dear, head of London real estate at the Eversheds law firm.
Zoopla is now the second biggest property website in the U.K., carrying sale and value estimates for every single U.K. property. Its usage has been increasing with the booming U.K. property market, with a jump in traffic in the eight months until May on Zoopla's website and mobile app by 37 percent, compared to the same period a year earlier.
Alex Chesterman, the founder of Zoopla and also of video rental firm Lovefilm in 2007, will stay on as the company's CEO. He pocketed £33 million from the listing, as he reduced his stake in the company from 8 percent to 6.1 percent.
"We are looking forward to life as a public company and to welcoming our new shareholders to the business," Chesterman said.
If Zoopla fully exercises an over-allotment of shares, the company will be able to rake in proceeds of £369.9 million, equivalent to about $627.6 million. The public float represented only 38.3 percent of the total share capital of Zoopla.
Daily Mail and General Trust, Zoopla's majority shareholder, unloaded 35 percent of its stake in the listing, earning £169 million in the process. It has retained a stake of 33.7 percent in Zoopla, before the exercising of the allotment of additional shares.
The I.P.O. of Zoopla stands as the latest in a succession of listings in the London Stock Exchange this year, with three other international companies announcing plans to obtain a listing in the exchange this past week.
