Very Group owners believed to have lined up banks for potential flotation

The family behind Liverpool-based online retailer The Very Group is understood to have chosen which banks it wants to lead it through a possible £4bn flotation, probably next year.

Last month Sky News reported that the Barclay family, which also owns the Daily Telegraph group, had appointed STJ Advisors to ready the business for an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.

It now claims three banks have been chosen – Barclays, Morgan Stanley and UBS.

This could be the first time the Barclays have taken one of their flagship companies public.

However, there is still an option to float a partial stake, while the Barclays retain overall control.

If so, it could prove problematic for fund managers who would be approached about buying Very Group’s shares, regarding the company’s governance structure and the Barclays’ continued ownership.

Earlier this week The Very Group launched a £575m bond to pay off a previous £550m issue.

In 2002 the Barclay brothers, David and Frederick, paid £750m for the Liverpool-based Littlewoods retail group. They renamed the business Shop Direct, and more recently The Very Group, following its transition to a wholly digital trading format.

Sir David died earlier this year, which is believed to have led to an evaluation of the family’s business empire.

With the transition from high street shopping to online hastened by the pandemic, there could be an appetite for a stake in The Very Group which broke the £2bn turnover barrier for the first time, figures to June 2020 showed.