- guardian.co.uk, Monday March 13 2000 00.00 GMT
Up to 250,000 investors are scrambling for the 33m shares being offered in net retailer Lastminute.com, resulting in disappointment for most applicants.
With the issue likely to be priced at 380p a share - the top end of the indicated pricing band, valuing the 19-month-old firm at more than £500m - private investors are unlikely to receive more than 50 shares each, worth £200.
Lastminute's advisers, American investment bank Morgan Stanley, and the company itself are believed to be resisting the idea of ballotting share applicants, aware that disappointment might damage the customer base. At the same time they are having to balance public demand with correspondingly high interest from City institutions, which were initially expected to buy two-fifths of the shares on offer. In total, a quarter of the business is being floated. Founded by 31-year-old Brent Hoberman and his 27-year-old business partner, Martha Lane Fox, the firm has expanded from selling cheap flights to a range of products for panic shoppers.
