Capital Calls: UK trendy-sofa IPO looks overly plumped up
25/05/2021 10:50
(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions
expressed are their own.)
LONDON, May 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Concise insights on
global finance.
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SOFA STRAIN. Made.com may not get an armchair ride from stock
market investors. The online furniture retailer popular with
young professionals announced plans https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/market-news/expected-intention-to-float/14989832
on Tuesday to list 25% of its shares on the London Stock
Exchange. It wants to sell 100 million pounds worth of new
stock. Meanwhile, some existing investors are getting out.
Given its loss-making past, its ambitions look suspiciously
well-sprung. The company co-founded in 2010 by lastminute.com
09B.F entrepreneur Brent Hoberman reckons it can nearly
quadruple gross annual sales to 1.2 billion pounds by the end of
2025. That’s based on it taking a chunk of the 504 billion pound
global furniture market when it expands beyond Europe in 2023.
But muscling in on rivals like $33 billion Wayfair W.N will be
tricky, and the likes of Germany’s Westwing WEW.DE are already
competing on its home turf. U.S. online mattress seller Casper
Sleep’s CSPR.N post-IPO woes https://www.breakingviews.com/considered-view/the-big-vc-giveaway-is-going-up-in-smoke
show what can happen when hype and reality misalign. Investors
may want to haggle over the price. (By Aimee Donnellan)
On Twitter http://twitter.com/breakingviews
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| Editing by Ed Cropley and Karen Kwok)