Letsbuyit to float on 21 July

The fewer buyers of its shares, the cheaper the price

Online retailer Letsbuyit.com hopes to hold its stock market debut on 21 July after twice postponing its share flotation.

The company earlier this week said it would put off its offering - planned for last Tuesday - after deciding to slash the price of its shares following poor demand from investors.

It had earlier postponed its flotation in May.

But it will now go ahead with the offering on Frankfurt's technology-dominated Neuer Markt, despite analysts' misgivings.

Even if the offering does go ahead on 21 July, analysts said the company would have a big hole in its financing.

Letsbuyit lowered its share issue price range to between 3 and 4 euros, down from its initial price range of 6 to 7 euros.

That means the company will raise a maximum of 356m, sharply lower than the planned 623m euros.

Financing problems

"If the IPO goes through, the company will be listed with a gap in its financing plan," said Peter Barkow, an analyst at HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt in Duesseldorf.

Letsbuyit.com tries to bundle consumer demand on its web site to bargain for lower prices from suppliers. It operates in 14 countries and 12 languages in Western Europe.

The company needs to fund its operations from the money raised in the share offering because of its rapid cash burn.

It currently has reserves of 15m euros, which are sufficient to cover it for the next two to three months.

"They are now trying to force an IPO because they absolutely need the proceeds from the flotation," one analyst said.

Other analysts said the company was basically trying to list its shares at the wrong time.

Online retailers have been particularly hard hit by the stock market slump in technology stocks after the high-profile collapse of sportswear and fashion retailer boo.com in May.

A number of firms have since been forced to postpone their stock market flotations.