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Most followed: Daily Mail, QinetiQ, Unilever, Zoopla, FatFace, Wizz Air, River & Mercantile ...

Published: 20:52 22 May 2014 AEST

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Three more companies confirmed they would seek a stock exchange listing today while another got cold feet.

FatFace Group, the clothing group, is taking off its glad-rags and putting away its shiny shoes as it has decided not to proceed with an initial public offering (IPO) at this stage.

Current equity market conditions are the principal factor in the decision, a company announcement said.

Current housing market conditions might be the principal factor behind the decision of property web site operator Zoopla to make a dash for cash before the housing bubble pops.

It is going for a listing on the main market, and will be offering shares to institutional investors and the group’s eligible members, such as estate agents, letting agents, new home builders and Zoopla franchisors.

Eligible members will each be able to buy up to £2,500 worth of shares at a 20% discount to the offer price, which has yet to be set. No news yet whether that £2,500 will be subject to an agency fee …

Wizz Air, the largest low-cost airline in central and eastern Europe, also plans to float - presumably after a bit of circling – on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. The company aims to raise around €200mln through the issue of new shares.

Somewhat less of a household name is River and Mercantile Group, an advisory and investment solutions business formed by the recent merger of P-Solve Limited and River and Mercantile Asset Management.

The business has £8.4bn of assets under management, and provides a broad range of services, from consulting and advice to fully-delegated fiduciary and fund management.

Like the other two companies today that announced their intentions to float, River & Mercantile will be listed on the main market, raising £12mln (net) in the process through the issue of new shares.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail and General Trust (LON:DMGT) is to sell its jobs web site, Jobsite, to German media group Axel Springer, while Unilever (LON:ULVR) is to sell its North American pasta sauces business, which trades under the Ragu and Bertolli brands.

All of the above stories are racking up the hits on the stock exchange news web sites, while, unusually, the regulation results statements that are proving popular with the punters are the medium and large caps, such as Mothercare (LON:MTC), Dairy Crest (LON:DCG), QinetiQ (LON:QQ.) and Booker (LON:BOK).

The QinetiQ announcement is also trending on the news section of a well-known search engine, where the view is either that profits have fallen on military spend (The Telegraph) or the company has moved back into the black (various news agencies).

It is all part of the modern trend to provide both a “headline” profit figure and a “reported” profit figure.

The AstraZeneca/Pfizer set-to is still generating a lot of column inches, but has been supplanted by Royal Dutch as the most actively traded stock.

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