// Moonpig floats on the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of £1.2bn
// The retailer said the offer price of its IPO will be 350p per share
// Moonpig chairwoman and former WHSmith boss Kate Swann is helping oversee the listing
Moonpig has debuted on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of £1.2 billion.
The online greeting cards and gift retailer said the offer price of its IPO will be 350p per share.
The flotation comprises 5.7 million new shares to raise gross proceeds of £20 million and 134.6 million existing shares being sold by certain existing shareholders – equating to a total offer size of £491.2 million.
READ MORE: Moonpig proceeds with £1.2bn London stock market listing
In total, they represent 41 per cent of the greeting cards retailer’s issued shared capital on admission, which totals 342 million shares.
Some selling shareholders are also making available an extra 14 million shares.
Conditional dealings for Moonpig began at 8am on February 2, while unconditional dealings are set to begin at the same time on February 5.
“Listing on the London Stock Exchange is an incredibly special milestone and will provide new opportunities for the business,” Moonpig chief executive Nickyl Raithatha said.
“We are confident that Moonpig Group will continue to make gifting even more effortless for millions of people across the UK and internationally.
“As the leaders of a market undergoing an accelerating shift to online, now is the perfect time for us to bring the company to the public market, and we are excited about Moonpig’s prospects for the future.”
Moonpig chairwoman and former WHSmith boss Kate Swann is helping oversee the listing as the retailer seeks to tap further into a cards and gifts market which is worth £24 billion across the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland, and is rapidly switching online.
The retailer said only around 10 per cent of card purchases were made online in 2019, which is forecast to double to 20 per cent by 2021.
The ecommerce firm already has 12.2 million customers and sends 46 million cards a year but is trying to position itself as a technology business, using customer data and predictive technology.
Moonpig, which launched 20 years ago, has a team of more than 400 staff across the UK and Netherlands, with an office in London, a technology hub in Manchester and factory in Guernsey.
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