Made.com: Online furniture seller plots London IPO
Made.com has unveiled plans for an initial public offering in London after cashing in on rapid growth during the pandemic.
The online furniture retailer today said it will seek to raise roughly £100m through the issue of new shares, while the float will include an offer of shares to be sold by existing shareholders.
The company did not set a target valuation, but it is reportedly aiming for a price tag of up to £1bn.
Made.com said it expected to have a free float of roughly 25 per cent following admission, with shares representing up to a further 15 per cent of the offer would be made available through an over-allotment option.
The furniture brand, which was co-founded by British entrepreneur Brent Hoberman in 2010, has grown rapidly in recent years, thanks in part to its popularity among millennials.
Chief executive Philippe Chainieux said the online furniture market had reached an “inflection point” similar to the one previously seen in fashion, as more and more people shifted away from brick-and-mortar retailers.
The site saw its active user base rise to 1.2m in the year to the end of the first quarter, as the pandemic helped drive up demand among online retailers.
Earlier this month the retailer said it would double its London warehouse space to meet consumer demand for furniture and homewares.
Made.com posted gross sales of £109.5m in the first three months of the year — an increase of 63 per cent year on year.
Just over half its orders are made in the UK, with the remainder coming from continental Europe. The company is targeting gross sales of more than £1.2bn per year by the end of 2025.
“The business is fast growing and we have demonstrated the capacity of our brand and customer proposition to travel well,” said chief executive Philippe Chainieux.
It is the latest in a string of London IPOs, with cyber security firm Darktrace, greetings card platform Moonpig and tech reseller Music Magpie among the other recent debuts in the capital.
Made.com has hired JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners on the float, while Liberum Capital will be co-lead manager.