JUNE 18, 2002

A good time for an IPO?

Conventional wisdom says that now is not the moment to be floating a company on the stock exchange.

CONVENTIONAL wisdom says that now is not the moment to be floating a company on the stock exchange but analysts have been somewhat taken aback by the performance of William Hill - the largest public offering in Britain for almost a year - which has been leaping ahead in recent days with the share price climbing from the float price of 225p to 246p. The IPO raised $500m for the betting company.

In addition the flotation was oversubscribed 10 times.

The timing of the flotation has been good because it is estimated that British gamblers will wager around $300m on the World Cup soccer in the course of the next two weeks.