The anticipated £1 billion Initial Public Offering of Zoopla is to be handled by some of the same advisers handling recent high profile IPOs - hard hitting commercial lawyers in what is known in the legal sector as the Magic Circle.
Zoopla Property Group is being advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. This legal practice recently advised underwriters JP Morgan, CityGroup, UBS and Investec on Lloyds' 25 per cent TSB float for £1.5 billion.
ZPG's majority shareholder, the Daily Mail and General Trust, and minority shareholders LSL Property Services, Countrywide and Connells, are being advised by Slaughter and May, another Magic Circle firm.
Zoopla says it will price its shares between 200p and 250p which implies a market valuation of between £835m and £1.04bn.
The company - Britain's second biggest property portal behind Rightmove - says its so-called membership' is now at a record 19,462 offices. Each member has until today to take advantage of ZPG's Member Offer, which allows agents and developers to subscribe for shares in the IPO at a 20 per cent discount.
Each ZPG member will be entitled to purchase up to £2,500 worth of shares per branch or development advertised with ZPG in the IPO and the same amount again next year, both at a 20 per cent discount to the IPO price.
The discounted offer has been designed to reward past and future loyalty, says ZPG.
Zoopla's success, or otherwise, when it floats is being seen as something of a litmus test not just within the tiny but viciously competitive property portal sector - where both ZPG and Rightmove are being challenged by Agents' Mutual from next year - but also as a key indicator of the wider IPO market itself.
Many recent IPOs by well-known names have suffered one of two problems.
Firstly some (like the small Patisserie Valerie cafe chain) have launched at the bottom of their share price range, thus disappointing investors and market analysts and so generating mad publicity; secondly, other would-be floatations (like fashion store Fat Face) have abandoned IPOs because of jitters over how the market would receive them.
Zoopla is aiming for a freefloat' of 27 to 43 per cent of its shares, meaning its existing shareholders will remain involved in the firm, albeit possibly with reduced stakes: the Daily Mail and General Trust has already said some of its stake will be sold off in the IPO.
ZPG will begin trading on 19 June after the final pricing is set by its advisers with feedback from investors.
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