RGU.L Share News (RGU)

(Adds byline) By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - It is about to get evenharder for stock market investors to make direct bets on thesmall but fast-growing sharing economy that has gained attentionfrom the runaway success of Uber and Airbnb. Expedia's deal to buy vacation rental site HomeAwayInc for about $3.9 billion, unveiled Wednesday, willshorten an already modest list of publicly-traded companiesfocused on peer-to-peer home rentals, ride-hailing services andother ways for people to make money from their personalproperty. It is a sector that could earn $335 billion in annualrevenue over the next decade, estimates PriceWaterHouseCoopers,and present opportunities for investors, according to CreditSuisse. But many of the smallish firms currently trading in thatspace on U.S. exchanges have not performed as well as HomeAway,up almost 20 percent since the deal with Expedia was unveiled. Peer-to-peer finance company LendingClub has fallen43 percent year to date and is just below its 2014 initialpublic offering price. Textbook renter Chegg is up 9percent this year but remains 39 percent below its lofty 2013IPO price. With a combined market capitalization of just $10 billion,those companies and HomeAway are dwarfed by sharing economyheavyweight Uber, whose most recent round of funding valued itat over $50 billion, and Airbnb, valued around $25 billion. "If you're looking for a public company related to thesharing economy, there's nobody else doing it at this scale,"said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Naved Khan. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick recently said his company was yearsfrom an IPO. Airbnb has been quiet on its plans go public and inJune raised $1.5 billion in fresh funds, suggesting it is in nohurry. Credit Suisse's equities research group in a recent reportlisted LendingClub, TripAdvisor, United Kingdom-listedRegus and car rental agencies Avis Budget and Hertz among stocks poised to benefit from the sharing economy. Regus, which since the 1980s has offered temporaryoffices and meeting rooms, has surged 61 percent this year.JCDecaux, an advertising company that operates publicbike-share systems across Europe, has jumped 28 percent. None are bargain priced, however. LendingClub now tradesaround 66 times expected earnings and Chegg at 47 times earnings making both more expensive than HomeAway at 46 times earnings. Compass Point Research analyst Michael Tarkan recommendsselling LendingClub's stock because of competitive risks andregulatory uncertainty related to its use of a third-party bankto make loans, which it then buys and sells to investors. Chegg, which started as a textbook rental service and istransitioning to a digital business as well as connecting tutorswith students, has yet to see its stock reach its IPO price.That underscores the importance of carefully weighingvaluations, even if only a handful of sharing-economy stocks areavailable to investors. "Beware buying new offerings of 'sharing economy'powerhouses if they come public during a period of marketexuberance. They will likely be overpriced," wrote GuildInvestment Management executive vice president Tim Shirata in anote to clients on Thursday. "Wait for a significant correctionbefore you invest." (Reporting by Noel Randewich, additional reporting by JeffreyDastin in New York; Editing by Linda Stern and Andrew Hay)