British home and motor insurer Esure expects to be valued at about £1.1 billion when it makes its London stock market debut this month, it said yesterday.

That values founder and chairman Peter Wood’s stake at more than half a billion pounds and means he could bank about £170 million from selling a third of his holding.

Esure, which insures about 5 per cent of Britain’s motorists, set a price range of 240 pence to 310 pence per share for the offering, in which it plans to float up to half of its shares.

Esure last week reported last year’s pretax profit more than doubled to £115 million.

Esure, which plans to raise £50 million from the sale of new shares to wipe out its debt, said the total stake floated will be between 35 and 50 per cent of the company. – (Reuters)