Ebookers begins trading on the LSE

Ebookers begins trading on the LSE

Online travel agency ebookers.com has finally begun trading on the stock market, several weeks after it originally intended to do so.

The company previously announced its intention to list in March, saying it hoped the listing would take place at the end of the month. The date originally agreed upon was finally set for 6 April, but two weeks before its listing sources close to the event seemed unsure.

Company sources, advisers and stock exchange spokesmen said that, although a date had been proposed, there were chances the listed could be postponed.

‘The basic reason [the listing was delayed] is that the technical process took longer than originally expected,’ said an ebookers spokesman, ‘but there were no problems aside from administrative ones.’

Advisers at Schroeder Salomon Smith Barney, said the listing is a straightforward procedure; as the company is not issuing new shares or raising cash.

Finance director Navneet Bali told Accountancy Age it was listing because it wanted to be closer to the London market.

‘We should get a higher profile and more liquidity from a London listing,’ he said ‘it is our home market, so they can understand us better. It will give us a home-country knowledge and advantage.’

Bali explained that, after the acquisition of travel rival Flightbookers last year, the UK is the country in which they conduct most of their business. He added a UK listing would help them increase their notoriety by listing in the UK ‘in the marketing and investors perspective.’

It will also enable investors that did not have access to ebookers stock ‘in particular small and mid-cap institutional funds- to purchase shares.’

Ebookers, already trades on the US Nasdaq and the German Neuer Markt.

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