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Trader.com IPO panned
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March 31, 2000: 6:45 a.m. ET
Online advertiser dives 33% on market debut as Europe shuns Net stocks
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Amsterdam-based online advertising company Trader.com had a disastrous opening day on the Paris bourse Friday as most European investors continued to shun the technology sector amid concern share prices are overheated.
Shares in the company, which specializes in classified advertising and runs 40 Web sites in 17 countries, plunged 10 percent from their  30 float price, set at the top of the previously indicated range of 26.5 to 30. The stock traded at 26.99 at midday in Paris after earlier falling as low as 20.10.
The stock will also trade on the Nasdaq market from Friday.
The issue was 10 times oversubscribed, with 11.7 million shares on offer.
The climate for offerings of shares in Net-based companies has changed since the last two significant European Net floats, the U.K.'s Lastminute.com (LMC) and World Online of the Netherlands. Both companies held IPOs this month, only to see their shares quickly sink below the offer price.
World Online lost another 8 percent at midday Friday having slid to 19.50. The stock floated at 42. Web-based shopping site Lastminute dropped 8 percent to 240 Friday, 37 percent below its launch price.
German telecom operator Deutsche Telekom (FDTE) is due to set the price range Monday for the initial offering of shares in its Internet access unit T-Online, in what is expected to be the most valuable IPO yet for a European technology company. The Financial Times reported Friday that Telekom's board has lowered its hopes for the value of T-Online's flotation, in view of recent declines in tech shares across the region.
The one bright spot in the European Net sector this week was Italian broadband Internet company E.Biscom. Its shares rose 38.75 percent on their stock market debut in Milan Thursday after an IPO that valued the company at 11 billion, ranking as the second most popular in the country's history. The company's shares rose another 10 percent by midday Friday to 46. 
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Trader.com
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