Exchange Holdings, the online financial information company, yesterday attempted to deflect attention from plunging pre-tax losses by announcing its first European acquisition and plans to spend millions on rebranding itself.

The company, which floated in August last year, reported an operating loss of £14m compared with a loss of £2m in 1998. Chairman Jan Loeber said this reflected "increased investment in product, service, people and brand to fuel the future growth of the business". Turnover rose 8% to £18m.

Exchange Holdings runs Moneyextra, one of the leading personal finance websites, which allows people to compare mortgages, savings accounts, loans and other products, and to monitor their investment portfolios.

After snapping up a number of other UK websites, including Moneyworld, Exchange yesterday took its first step abroad. It is buying Swedish online investment fund supermarket Fondex for an initial £21.65m, and said the deal "will be shortly followed by other announcements in Germany and Spain".

The company is to change its name to Moneyextra and plans to spend £18m on building up the brand this year. It intends to expand the main website to include an online home-buying centre, and comparative motor, home and travel insurance services.

Moneyextra and Moneyworld notched up almost 18m page views in January compared with 6.7m in September.