Lastminute.com bounty hunters get only 35 shares

Internet retailer Lastminute.com has not made any of its private investors instant millionaires during its first morning of trading.

Registered subscribers will only receive 35 ordinary shares with an offer price of 380p, so investors will get shares worth a grand total of £133.

However, despite the massive over-subscription, this morning's grey market trading was hectic. Trading on the grey market allows applicants to sell their share allocation at a fixed price before full trading starts at 8am on 21 March.

Shares started trading on a so-called 'when issued' basis at between 510p and 575p.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Lastminute.com's financial adviser, said that of the 33 million ordinary shares offered in the global offering, about 20 per cent of the issue have been allocated to registered subscribers.

Market capitalisation of the company was £571.3m based on the offer price of 380p. Today's grey market trading puts the figure at around £1bn.

Max Thowless-Reeves, an analyst at Richard Holway, said: "A £1bn price tag for a company with revenues as low as Lastminute.com's - about £300,000 for 1999 - is a little ambitious."

Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com, said the global offering has "clearly been a great success", and that he is "delighted by the strong level of demand for shares in Lastminute.com from institutional investors and registered subscribers".

"The initial public offering should enable Lastminute.com to continue at the forefront of European ecommerce and to take our service to the next level for both customers and suppliers. Our strategic objective is to become the global marketplace for all last-minute services and transactions," he said.

Separately, Lastminute.com said it will not be banking the accumulated interest on monies left over from over-subscription.