Greek Mobile marketing and mobile community building company, Internetq floated on the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) today, valuing the business at more than £31 million at the market close.
The business is one of the first mobile marketing businesses to float since the market started to take off earlier this year, and reveals just how keen investors are in the mobile market.
The initial placing over over 5.5 million shares at 120p each has put around £6.8 million into the companies pockets, which Internetq says it will use to expand its operations in key markets and beef up its mobile marketing interactive platform. Internetq currently operates in Poland, Turkey, Brazil, Russia and Greece, but it is looking to move into the Middle East and Africa. The company hopes to make acquisitions which will either take it into new countries or bring new technologies on board. Additionally the company runs a subscription-based social networking site called Akazoo and proceeds from the float will be used to redesign Akazoo.
The shares started the day at 130p, rose quickly to a high of 143.5p, before settling down to a share price of 138.5p
The 10-year old company founded by current executive vice chairman Panagiotis Dimitropoulos, operates in 24 countries, where it works with 55 mobile network operators and claims to reach over 570 million subscribers worldwide. The business provides brands and operators with direct response campaigns and loyalty programmes. It also develops customer communities for its clients.Among its clients Internetq lists a range of operators, including Orange, Turkey’s TurkCell, and Russia’s Beeline, and a range of brands, such as MTV, Nickelodeon, the World Wildlife Fund and publishers Bauer.
Last year InternetQ made pre-tax profits of £260,000 on revenues of £16.4million. Jendens forecasts profits will rise to £3.1million next year. In 2006 rival Velti joined Aim and is now worth £200million.