// Made.com confirms it will launch its stock market debut next Wednesday
// It will come with a £775.3m price tag
// Made.com first unveiled its plans for an IPO last month
Made.com has confirmed that it will launch its stock market debut next Wednesday with a £775.3 million price tag.
Made.com – co-founded by Lastminute.com entrepreneur Brent Hoberman – priced its initial public offering (IPO) at 200p a share for when conditional dealing starts.
The online furniture retailer, which unveiled the float plans last month, will raise £100 million of new money through the IPO, with a further £93.8 million worth of shares being sold by existing investors.
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Unconditional dealing in the group will begin on June 21, it said.
It is aiming to invest the cash raised towards growing further across Europe and boosting its homewares range.
Made.com chief executive Philippe Chainieux said the IPO was an “exciting milestone for Made”.
“A listing in London, where the business was founded, will enable us to accelerate our growth as we lead the development of the online furniture and homewares market as it moves online, both in the UK and internationally,” he said.
Its IPO comes amid a boom in demand for home furnishings during the pandemic, as well as a shift towards online retail.
Made.com also joins a fast-growing list of big-name retailers that recently announced plans or have gone ahead and launched on the stock market after enjoying success during the Covid-19 pandemic.
These include The Hut Group, Moonpig, Dr Martens, In The Style, Made.com, The Very Group, MyTheresa, MusicMagpie, Virgin Wines, Hotter Shoes, and Poundland parent company Pepco.
Made.com said gross sales jumped 30 per cent higher to £315 million in 2020, with growth accelerating further in the first quarter of 2021 to 63 per cent year-on-year.
It is aiming to have net sales of more than £1.2 billion by 2025.
High street rival DFS has also been enjoying impressive trading, with orders nearly doubling in the past 10 weeks compared with 2019 since shops reopened.
DFS also saw online orders nearly triple in its third quarter when stores remained shut in a sign that consumers are now more willing to buy so-called big ticket items, such as sofas, over the internet.
Made.com was founded in the UK in 2010 by Hoberman and Ning Li and, since 2013, has expanded across Europe, with Spain the most recent new market it entered in 2018.
Around 52 per cent of gross sales came from the UK market in the first three months of 2021, with the remainder from Continental Europe.
The retailer has two showrooms in the UK and a handful across Europe, but does not plan to increase its bricks-and-mortar sites as it remains focused on being an online player.
However, it is expanding its warehouse space in the London Gateway development in the South East, with plans to hire up to another 100 staff to help support its growth.
Li – who was chief executive until the end of 2016 – is a non-executive of Made.com, though Hoberman no longer has an active role in the retailer.
with PA Wires
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