Lowy's OneMarket online shopping experiment set to be wound-up

OneMarket, the early stage technology start-up that emerged as an online shopping experiment from the Westfield group, is set for an orderly winding-up.

"The decision has been a difficult one but, having carefully weighed the alternatives and assessed the attendant risks, the OneMarket Board believes that this is the right decision to make in the circumstances," shareholders were told.

OneMarket will also seek to be delisted from the ASX, where it reportedly has lost $240 million over the past two years.

When it listed it had around $200 million in cash, plus $42 million in capitalised development costs.

The amount currently available for cash distribution exceeds the share price, hence the board publicly inviting takeover proposals.

OneMarket will welcome proposals from third parties to acquire all the shares in OneMarket and it will also continue to seek potential buyers for OneMarket’s assets.

The prevailing price immediately prior to the AGM announcement of the conducting of a strategic review was 67 cents.

"The Board estimates that the amount available for an initial distribution will likely exceed the volume weighted average share price of around $0.85 per share since the AGM."

The Lowy Family Group and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (who have a shareholding in OneMarket of approximately 9.5% and 4.9% respectively) have both indicated that, in the absence of a superior proposal emerging, they will support the recommendation of the board.