Pets at Home ‘groomed for IPO’ says report
PETS at Home, the North West retailer and operator of veterinary services, is reportedly being groomed for a Stock Market listing.
Currently the Handforth-based company is owned by international private equity firm KKR, which paid £955m for the business in 2008.
Sky News said the company could list as early as Q1 2014 and had hired several investment banks to advise on a potential £1.5bn listing.
A spokesman for the company declined to comment on the report, although sources close to the situation said an IPO was a possibility, but that no decision had been taken.
Sky said Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Nomura had been hired to oversee the listing.
In its latest set of full-year results, published in August, Pets at Home’s earnings topped £100m barrier for the first time.
Since acquiring the company KKR has invested in a continued roll-out of stores – Pets now trades from 360 sites – and more recently it has opened and acquired a chain of veterinary practices.
A number of other prominent retailers are said to be mulling IPOs in a bid to xploit buoyant stock market conditions. They include House of Fraser, Liverpool’s B&M Bargains, Poundland and AO, the Bolton-based an online appliances retailer.
