Bankrate closes up 2.3 percent in market debut

Stock Market Predictions

NEW YORK (Global Markets) - Shares of Bankrate Inc (RATE.N), which publishes personal finance content online, rose in their stock market debut on Friday.

After spending the early part of the day in negative territory, Bankrate shares closed at $15.34, or 2.3 percent above their $15 IPO price in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

North Palm Beach, Florida-based Bankrate collects and publishes rates and other financial data in areas including mortgages, car loans, banking fees and retirement savings. It began as a newsletter in 1976 and moved to the Web in 1996.

The company, whose main sources of revenue are advertising and lead generation, distributes its content to websites and print publications including CNBC, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

In the three months ended March 31, Bankrate's common stockholders lost $4.2 million on revenue of $99.1 million.

Bankrate was taken private for $571 million in 2009 by Ben Holding S.a.r.l, an entity owned by funds affiliated with private equity firm Apax Partners.

Based on its Friday close Bankrate now has a market value of around $1.53 billion, meaning that Ben Holding and Apax have more than doubled the value of their investment in about two years.

Ben Holding still owns just over 70 percent of the company.

"The company's trajectory is very good," said Bankrate Chief Executive Tom Evans, but added: "We are thinking about what the value of the company is over time, not how it trades on the first day."

On Thursday, in an IPO led by Goldman Sachs & Co (GS.N) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC.N), Bankrate and its owners sold 20 million shares at $15 each, raising $300 million.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Jennifer Saba; Editing by John Wallace, Gerald E. McCormick and Steve Orlofsky)