High-flyers eye big net shopping float

By Geoff Senescall

Auckland entrepreneurs Eric Watson and Craig Heatley are understood to be having discussions about floating an internet shopping company.

This would link Mr Watson's Pacific Retail Group with Mr Heatley's Rupert Murdoch-backed eVenture.

But if talks fail, the two will end up competing against each other as both have made significant strides in developing their own individual shopping sites.

Mr Heatley, the founder of Sky TV, and who has built close links with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has registered in New Zealand various versions of the big US internet shopping company buy.com. This company is about to be floated in the US with a capitalisation of several billion dollars.

Mr Heatley has customised the software used by the US group and is several months away from launching it here. Mr Watson and his associates are also thought to be well down the track with their own internet shopping operation, possibly to be called Flying Pig or shop.com.

The aim is to leverage into the large customer base of listed company Pacific Retail Group, whose brands include Noel Leeming, Bond & Bond and Computer City, of which Mr Watson is the chairman and major shareholder.

It is also believed that the intention is for Pacific Retail, and possibly Advantage Group (in which Mr Watson holds shares) to take a cornerstone shareholding in what is intended to be a listed internet shopping company.

While Mr Heatley's version will offer users access to local as well as international shops, Mr Watson's is likely to focus only on local retailers.

Mr Watson was in New York and could not be contacted. Mr Heatley declined to comment. Earlier this week he announced he had joined forces with News Corp and Japanese internet investor Softbank to set up a local branch of eVenture.

The intention is to establish local versions of some of America's most popular internet businesses. It has already vowed to give banks and travel agencies a run for their money.

* Electronic commerce developer Advantage Group will not pay a dividend for the year ended June. It will reconsider its position following the December half-year result.