Snapchat owner valued at up to $22bn in Wall Street share float

Snap, the owner of Snapchat, has valued itself at up to $22bn (£18bn) as it prepares for one of the tech industry's biggest share flotations in years.

Co-founders Evan Spiegel, 26, and Bobby Murphy, 28, will be confirmed as billionaires as a result of the offer which will see their holdings in the company reduced from 22% to 14% each.

They were reported to have rejected a $3bn takeover attempt by Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) in 2013.

Snap's latest valuation figure falls short of previous expectations that it would put it as high as $25bn.

The company disclosed on Thursday that it was preparing to sell shares for between $14 and $16.

That would make the entire company worth between $19bn and $22bn.

It hopes to raise an estimated $2.3bn from the share sale, to be used to help fund its expansion.

The hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) would be the largest since China's Alibaba (Berlin: AHLA.BE - news) went public in 2014 valued at $171bn.

Los Angeles-based Snap is set to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Snapchat, which allows users to send messages that vanish after they are sent and offers a host of other features, began life in 2011 as a picture messaging app called Picaboo before being renamed.

Last year it began selling $130 video camera glasses.

The company says the app is now used by more than 150 million people every day, including more than 50 million in Europe.

Snap generates the majority of its revenue from advertising and seeks to challenge the dominance of internet giants such as Facebook and its Instagram service.

Snap's revenue rose seven-fold to $404m for 2016 but net losses widened from $373m to $515m as it faced higher costs.

Investors will be hoping the IPO avoids the fate of Twitter (Frankfurt: A1W6XZ - news) , which has seen its value fall sharply since it went public in 2013 and recently reported disappointing results.

Snap said last month that it was to make the UK its main hub outside the US.