Independent News & Media's iTouch subsidiary is planning to raise about £100 million sterling (€160.85 million) in a London flotation that will value the provider of services to mobile phone users at around £300 million sterling.

Final details of the pricing of the iTouch flotation and the number of shares to be issued will not be known until a bookbuilding exercise is completed. But it is understood that about 25 per cent of the company will be sold to institutional investors in the UK, Ireland, Europe and the United States. There will be no retail offering of shares. Merrill Lynch is global co-ordinator and bookbuilder to the flotation, with Davy Stockbrokers and WestLB Panmure Gordon. Independent owns 70.6 per cent of iTouch, having bought into the company two years ago. The balance is held by iTouch's South African founders, Mr Avi Azulai and Mr Wayne Pitout.

Neither Independent nor the two founders will be selling any shares in the flotation, but if 25 per cent is sold in new equity, it will mean the dilution of Independent's stake to 53 per cent and of the founders' stake to 22 per cent.

iTouch is restricting its listing to London and there are no plans to list on Nasdaq or the European high-technology markets. "London is big enough for our needs, but we will be offering the shares to American investors," said iTouch chairman Mr Ivan Fallon. He would not comment on the pricing of the initial public offering, but he said that the proceeds will be used to speed up the rollout of iTouch's services in Ireland, the UK, New Zealand and South Africa - all areas where majority shareholder Independent already has extensive media interests.

As part of the international expansion, iTouch is moving its head office from South Africa to London.

The company began operations in South Africa five years ago and provides information services to mobile phone users in a variety of ways, including interactive voice response (IVR), short message service (SMS) and Internet access through WAP mobile phones.

Mr Fallon emphasised that iTouch is not dependent on WAP technology. "WAP is the latest fashion and we are heavily involved in it. But we're already in other technologies like IVR and SMS. Not everybody wants WAP. Some people want to listen to messages, some want short text messages," he said.

A major part of iTouch's strategy is to develop links with local mobile phone operators. The group has forged alliances with Vodafone in the UK and Esat Digifone in Ireland.

Further roll-outs are planned in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as well as in Israel, where iTouch has a joint venture.