Zoopla Property Group Plc share price up, after IPO values the company at £1 billion

Zoopla Property Group Plc, which owns the real estate websites Zoopla and PrimeLocation increased on its first day of trading. The successful performance can be attributed to the fact that Zooplas controlling investor Daily Mail & General Trust Plc (DGMT) benefits from the climbing housing market in the U.S.

One of the analysts, who work at Investec – Mr. Steve Liechti commented for the Financial Times, saying: “Zoopla IPO pricing is at the lowish end of the range, but this looks a decent result for DMGT in our view given a more soggy IPO market.”

Zoopla Property Group Plc price equalled to 220 pence per share on the London Stock Exchange, pricing the companys shares at the lower end of projections and giving it a market value of 918.8 million pounds (1.6 billion dollars).

Earlier in June, Zoopla has projected a share price range from 200 to 250 pence a share, but on Wednesday said its flotation would amount to 220 pence per share. The companys shares conditional trading already started on the London Stock Exchange. The unconditional dealings are planned to start on June 23rd.

Zoopla Property Group was founded in 2007 and currently generates the major part of its revenue by monthly subscriptions to advertise properties. It has about 19 000 member estate agents to date, and more than 40 million visits to its websites and mobile applications on a monthly basis over the six months ended March 2014. The main investor of Zoopla – Daily Mail and General Trust holds a 52% stake in the company, after merging its online property-listings division with the website owner in 2012.

The companys Initial Public Offering is expected to help Zoopla raise gross proceeds that amount to at least 370 million pounds for its selling shareholders, some of which are LSL Property Services and Countrywide Plc. The offer equals to 38.3% of the issued share capital of Zoopla, which also reported that no new shares are being issued.

Zoopla Property Group Plc was adding 3.86% to trade at 228.50 pence per share by 11:53 GMT.