ENBA, the Dublin-based holding company for Internet only financial services, is in the process of raising a second round of private funding to the value of €45 million (£35.4 million).
Enba is currently in discussions with potential investors and group chief executive, Mr Gerhard Huber, said the company hopes to finalise the process by August. He maintained there was such interest in Enba's venture at the moment that it could easily raise €75 million. But it was looking for an investor that would add value to the company and generate the same interest in it within the financial sector as Intel's investment in the company created in the technology sector.
At the moment a major European insurance company is thought to be interested, and Mr Huber has said it would be desirable to have an Irish investor on board, because the company's operations are located here.
Mr Huber would neither confirm nor deny a report in Business & Finance magazine that the next round of funding may come from either Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley. But it appears a number of investors rather than a single one will be involved.
Enba, which was established in March with £10.4 million (€13.2 million) backing from Intel, Apax Partners, Metro and Vertex, is now likely to seek a stock market listing early next year. Mr Huber says another round of private funding will serve to delay a public placing but the funds would be used quickly to facilitate rapid expansion in all of Enba's target markets.
He added that a listing on the US Nasdaq, while currently not feasible for Enba as it does not have operations in the US, would not be desirable in the current climate. A more attractive option would be a dual listing on Dublin's developing companies' market and Frankfurt's Easdaq stock exchange.
Enba's objective is to act as a portal for the financial services industry. There are currently 64 people working from the company's Dublin headquarters developing transaction software that will offer Enba customers financial products and services online from those companies that partner with Enba. The costs to Enba are negligible as the partner companies continue to take responsibility for administration of transactions.
Enba's main revenue stream will be fee based as it initially targets retail customers and some small businesses. It plans to begin offering its services in Britain from September. Mr Huber says one of Enba's strongest initial offerings will be online stockbroking in real time.
Despite Enba's physical presence in Ireland it has no plans to offer its service to customers here. Mr Huber says it plans to establish activities in Germany, Italy, Spain and France, because these markets offer the widest possible immediate audience within Europe.
Enba is modelled directly on its US counterpart, Net.B@nk.com, the first Internet only bank. Since January it has more than doubled its customer base to 35,000, and has recorded a profit over each of the last four quarters. Its services include account access any time, free unlimited online bill payment, free unlimited ATM use, online brokerage services, mortgage lending and business equipment leasing services.
