Travel group CNG aims at £100m float

CNG, an Irish online travel company, is to float on the London stock market in a deal that will value it at up to £100m.

CNG, an Irish online travel company, is to float on the London stock market in a deal that will value it at up to £100m.

The float is expected to be the second-largest this year by an Irish company after Eircom, the telecommunications group, whose initial public offering in London last week valued it at £640m.

The company is a hotel room distributor dealing both with travel agents and consumers. Its main focus is on the $35bn (£19bn) US corporate hotel.

It said sales for its latest financial year were expected to total £330m with post-tax profits of £6m.

The float, on AIM, is expected to raise about £30m and to be valued at between £80m and £100m including the new capital. Finbarr Power, CNG's chief executive, said the proceeds would be used to provide working capital to boost sales and fund a marketing drive as well as to make "selective" acquisitions.

"CNG is ideally positioned to benefit from the rapid changes taking place in the hotel room distribution market," he said.

"The fund raise and flotation will raise our profile with our partners, customers and the industry, and assist the Company in developing our business as we look to aggressively dominate our chosen markets."