Card Factory reveals float value

CARD Factory will be valued at £766m when it makes its debut on the London Stock Exchange today .
 
The budget card retailer, founded in Wakefield, announced this morning that its shares will be valued at 225p each which will see £90m raised for the company while private equity group Charterhouse and members of the management team will receive £206.6m.

The flotation will see management hold 19.2% of the shares and 41.3% by Charterhouse.

Chief executive Richard Hayes, said: “Since our first store was set up in Wakefield in 1997, Card Factory has firmly established itself as the leading specialist retailer in the large, resilient and growing UK greeting cards market, and now operates from over 700 stores nationwide. Ours is a well-invested and cash generative business with a strong business model, creating an excellent platform for further profitable growth. 

“We welcome our new shareholders, and our priority now is to execute our clearly defined growth strategy on their behalf.”

The group announced its intention to float on the London Stock Exchange last month and said it plans to expand from its current 733 stores up to around 1,200 over the next ten years.

The retailer was founded by husband and wife team Janet and Dean Hoyle in 1997. Private equity house Charterhouse bought Card Factory for £350m in 2010 and hired Goldman Sachs to explore a sale last year, but talks came to nothing.

Card Factory sold more than 285m cards in the financial year to the end of January 2014 and in that year, the group achieved revenue growth of 9% to £326.9m and underlying EBITDA growth of 9.2% to £80.4m.