Pets at Home ‘£700m float’ moves nearer with broker move
THE stock market flotation of one the North West’s most successful businesses has moved a step closer with the appointment by Pets at Home of City broker JP Morgan Cazenove.
Handforth-based Pets at Home, which has 230 stores nationwide, has emerged fom the recession largely unscathed and is now looking at listing in the New Year.
Currently owned by private equity house Bridgepoint – which paid £230m for the business in 2004 – a value of £700m has been suggested for the business.
Despite the slump in consumer spending, which has hit other retailers hard, Pets has seen strong growth and like-for-like sales in the year to March 2009 rose by 7.5%.
The retailer said that JP Morgan Cazenove has been appointed as “joint sponsor, joint bookrunner and joint global coordinator to examine the options for a potential IPO of the company in 2010”.
Matt Davies, chief executive of Pets at Home, said that the retailer has seen “fantastic growth” over recent years.
“We believe there remains a significant opportunity to build on the Pets at Home experience and to take it to more pet lovers across the UK.
“We haven’t put a timeframe in place, or any date because who knows when the right time wil be. We are preparing ourselves so that at some point in 2010, if the deal is right, we are ready.
“We are comfortable with how we are trading, we would never have taken the step of appointing a broker if we were not. Our business is less seasonal than many others, so the process should not be a major distraction in the run up to Christmas.”
In the 12 months to March this year, pre-tax profits before exceptional items increased by more than 29% from £30.9m to £39.9m, while turnover was up 14% to £404.2m.
