Stepstone, the Nowegian on-line recruitment company planning to float in Oslo and London, has been valued slightly below original expectations at £365m.

Adviser Morgan Stanley Dean Witter was expected to value the company in excess of £400m but a spokesman for Stepstone emphasised that £365m was based on a mid-point figure and the company is raising £65m, which is more than first predicted.

The grey market expects the company to be valued in excess of £400m at the end of its first day's trading.

The offer is for 54m ordinary shares at an indicative price range of 152p to 190p. Applications for shares can be made through www.stepstone.co.uk and must be received by February 28. Pricing is expected on March 1 with dealings set to begin the next day.

Giles Clark, chief executive of Stepstone, said: "Stepstone's strategy is to become the leading pan-European online recruitment and career portal. Going public enables the company to build its European brand awareness further, enlarge its customer base, accelerate end-user traffic whilst continuing to enhance site functionality and features."

Stepstone operates in the UK, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Belgium and Italy, and claims it is market leader by revenue. Turnover in 1999 was £7m and there was a net loss of £15m. In January it had about 1.9m user sessions, 1,100 companies as annual contract advertising customers, and some 170,000 cvs and 63,000 jobs listed.