- guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 July 1999 15.58 BST
The online auction house, QXL, is considering a stock market flotation which could make it Britain's second most valuable internet business after Dixons Freeserve.
QXL has appointed investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston to look at a range of financial operations which could include a float.
The review has emerged less than two years after QXL was formed by Tim Jackson, a freelance journalist who admitted basing his ideas on overseas models - particularly e-Bay - the US online auction house valued at nearly £12bn after its flotation last September.
A spokeswoman for QXL would make no comment on the timing of any possible flotation nor on an expected price tag. Weekend press reports suggested, however, that QXL, Europe's largest online auction site, could be worth as much as £750m.
QXL has two main business lines - selling its own goods and services and providing a forum for customers to buy and sell their own items on the net. The group has auction sites in the UK, France, Italy and Germany.
Some estimates suggest QXL is growing at 20% a month, and such rapid expansion would explain why internet-friendly investors such as French media group Vivendi and Bernard Arnault, creating a string of internet ventures, are keen to take stakes. Apax, the venture capital house, already has a substantial holding.
