- The Observer, Sunday 18 July 1999
The Internet millionaires' club looks set to welcome another member next week when the eXchange Group unveils full details of its flotation, a move which will net its chief executive, Paul Lindsey, up to £60 million.
The online business and personal finance information service is expected to be valued at up to £400m. Lindsey became managing director of the eXchange in 1991. Last year he spearheaded a management buyout by the original joint backers, Origo Services and AT&T. Lindsey owns just under 20 per cent of the eXchange.
The eXchange, which last year made an operating profit of £4m on turnover of £16.6m, is being advised on the flotation by bankers Warburg Dillon Read and Goldman Sachs.
It offers a range of information services, allowing users to compare different products. By May the site had 100,000 registered users, and a partnership deal with Microsoft UK.
Lindsey joins a growing list of UK Internet millionaires. Last week Freeserve announced a flotation price of £1.4 billion, a move which will earn its chief executive John Pluthero £2m over four years.
Anti-euro campaigner Paul Sykes made £53m last year from the sale of Internet service provider Planet Online to Energis, but in recent weeks the headlines have been grabbed by Tim Jackson, a freelance journalist who founded QXL, a European online auction house. Last month the company announced it was to float for up to £750m. Jackson could rake in up to £50m from the float.
Other UK Internet firms which are gearing up for floats include Beenz.com, which offers redeemable loyalty points for spending time on surfing websites.
Another company, Lastminute.com, which specialises in selling cut-price holidays, concert tickets and gifts, also plans a flotation next year. The company, which is half-owned by its management, is believed to have had offers which value it at more than £80m.
However, analysts warn that these plans may depend on how enthusiastic investors are about the Freeserve flotation. Less than 9 per cent of Freeserve's active 1.5 million users have registered for the share offer.
