Private equity firm offloads £180m Card Factory shares

CARD FACTORY’S biggest shareholder has fully exited the firm, offloading £180m worth of shares.

Private equity firm Charterhouse sold its remaining 60,609,953 shares on Friday, a 17.8% share of the business.

In February, Charterhouse gave a seat up on the board of the greetings card retailer after selling 40,000,000 shares at a value of £110m.

Charterhouse Capital Partners bought the retailer for £350m in 2010.

Card Factory floated in May 2014, four years after it was acquired by Charterhouse from founders Dean and Janet Hoyle. 

The firm reported a “record year” last week after making its London Stock Exchange debut.

Sales were up 8.1% to £353.3m in the year to January 31, with like-for-like sales up 1.8%. The chain added 51 stores and now has 764, with plans to increase by another 50 this year. 

Founded in Wakefield in 1997, Card Factory focuses on the value and mid-market segments of the UK’s growing greeting cards market. It principally operates through its nationwide chain of stores. 

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