British online estate agent easyProperty plans to raise funds
By Esha Vaish
(Reuters) - EasyProperty, a British online real estate agent co-founded by businessman Stelios Haji-Ioannou, plans a share placement or initial public offering in the second half of the year to raise funds to expand in Europe, its chief executive said.
The company, which helps customers let out their houses in England and Wales, intends to raise a "significantly larger" amount than the 9.75 million pounds ($14.51 million) it raised through a share placement in September, CEO Rob Ellice told Reuters.
The last fundraising round, the company's second, valued easyProperty at 66 million pounds.
"At the next round, we'd be seeing someone of a larger scale put a bigger chunk of money into the business," said Ellice, who co-founded the company and is its largest shareholder. He said he had been contacted by funds from the United States, France and Germany.
Asked how the company planned to raise funds, he said: "I think we're looking at both an IPO and a pre-IPO round at the moment."
A number of real estate agents, including Purplebricks and Hunters UK, are building towards a listing this year to raise funds and benefit from the strong equity market, healthy letting demand and a sharp rise in housing prices in the past two years.
Although housing transactions have cooled ahead of UK's May election, investors and industry experts are expecting demand to shoot up in the second half of the year.
The easyProperty brand is on lease for 20 years from Haji-Ioannou, better known as Stelios, founder of budget airline easyJet Plc .
The company counts family offices and high net worth individuals among its investors. It has also attracted investors via a crowdfunding platform.
EasyProperty, which plans to launch its services in Scotland soon, said it would hire another financial adviser along with Chrystal Capital Partners, the financial boutique that managed its first two fundraising rounds.
EasyProperty has licences to enter France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Greece. Ellice said the company was in preliminary deal talks with local partners in two countries.
(Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)
