LadBible to target £360m in stock market float
Manchester-headquartered digital publisher, LadBible, is to target a valuation of £360m in a stock market flotation.
It is understood that co-founder Solly Solomou is to sell a chunk of his stake, which will be valued at around £200m if the IPO is successful.
In recent months, the company, which owns titles including LADbible, SPORTbible, and UNILAD, has been working with Zeus Capital, the investment bank, on a review of a full range of strategic options.
LadBible was established by Mr Solomou and Arian Kalantari in 2012 during a period of explosive growth in online media consumption, and has managed to carve out a loyal international following which now generates 28bn content views globally every year.
At least 40% of its audience is female, and it has more than doubled its digital readership during the last five years.
It counts approximately two-thirds of the youth market in Britain among its readers.
The LadBible Group has had a record year too, doubling profits to £4.1m on record sales of £30.2m.
Sky News reported that LBG Media was likely to raise £30m from the sale of new shares, with £80m of shares being sold by existing investors including Mr Solomou.
The group has also recruited Carol Kane, the co-founder of online fashion giant Boohoo, as a non-executive director ahead of its IPO.
