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Moneysupermarket founder 'open to offers'

By Mark Foxwell
Updated: 07:27 EDT, 8 November 2010

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Price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com could soon be in the hands of private equity after its founder said he would consider offers.

In the fast lane: Ferrari-driving Simon Nixon

Multi-millionaire Simon Nixon, who owns 52.5%, said investment bank Credit Suisse was advising it after a flurry of interest from potential buyers.

It is understood that many have been waiting for Nixon to give the green light for bids after he said earlier this year he was not interested in selling out.

But shares in Moneysupermarket have risen 19% in the past six months. They closed on Friday at 85.65p, valuing the company at £436m.

A source close to the group said the board would be looking for a bid of £600m.

Private equity firm Apax is believed to be among those to have made an approach in the past few months. An insider said it had recently met Moneysupermarket chairman Gerard Corbett about a potential acquisition.

Apax declined to comment.

The history
By Thisismoney reporters

Moneysupermarket.com floated on the stock market in 2007 for £843m, short of the hoped £1bn. Shares were initially priced at 170p and dived to 157p on the day. It was the biggest-ever UK internet flotation.

A sale now would likely leave thousands of small investors who backed the IPO nursing heavy losses.

Today, shares in Moneysupermarket rose 2.1p - or 2.45% to 87.75p.

Nixon, the university dropout and former mortgage broker, stepped back from the day-to-day management in 2008, becoming executive deputy chairman, working just one day a week for the business.

In August, Moneysupermarket revealed a 3% decline in profits to £18.1m for the first half of the year despite revenues rising 4% to £71.6m. Before that, it had warned tough travel markets would offset revenue growth in money and insurance products.

The August results also showed visitors to moneysupermarket.com were up 3% and down 4% for travelsupermarket.com. [The full announcement form August]

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