London Stock Exchange (LSE) has recorded seven new retail companies that raised £2.1 billion from its markets, in the first few months of the year – a clear sign that investor appetite for retail companies is strong in that market.
The market has seen a diverse range of retail companies come to London, from well known domestic brands such as Poundland, Boohoo.com, Pets At Home, McColls and AO World, as well as international companies such as the Russian hypermarket chain, Lenta and the Indian online fashion retailer, Koovs.
Koovs, the Indian online fashion retailer successfully raised £22 million at IPO, valuing the business at £36 million. Koovs, set up by former ASOS chairman Lord Alli, is the first Indian business to list on LSE since Nandan Cleantech, which debuted in November 2011. There are 62 Indian businesses, with a combined value of £90 billion, listed in London across AIM and the Main Market.
The boost in retail listings this year has helped raise overall IPO activity to pre-2007 levels. Notably, the IPO market is providing viable exit opportunities for private equity and venture capital firms, with six private equity-backed listings on London’s markets year-to-date.
Key statistics: five retail Main Market IPOs raise £1.78 billion and two retail Alternative Investment Market (AIM) IPOs raise £322 million; 70 retail companies currently listed on our markets – 23 AIM and 47 Main Market, and six private equity-backed IPOs to date in 2014.
Alastair Walmsley, head of primary markets, LSE Group, said: “The surge in retail IPO activity over the last few months can be attributed in part to a reawakening of investor appetite for equity. 2014 looks set to be a strong year for London’s equity market, with a healthy number of UK and international companies seeing the opportunity offered by our markets as a platform for their future growth. The strength of our pipeline underlines the power of equity to enable companies to achieve their strategic ambitions and we look forward to welcoming more high quality and well known businesses to our markets in the coming months.”
