After months of relative inactivity, the London Stock Exchange is now set to have its first major initial public offering (IPO) since the coronavirus pandemic took hold earlier in the year. On Thursday, British e-commerce company The Hut Group announced that it will be moving forward with its IPO, which it plans to launch later this month.
The Manchester-based company is seeking to raise up to $1.2 billion, with the share expected to increase the company's market valuation to around $6 billion once it is completed.
The company said it had already secured a number of major investors interested in joining the deal. Investors such as Janus Henderson and the Qatar Investment Authority, both managed partly by BlackRock, have committed to investing a combined $752 million to buy Hut Group shares.
The Hut Group operates over 100 international websites, which run its proprietary online marketplace platform. Some of its well-known e-commerce sites include the Skinstore, Mankind and Lookfantastic. The company also sells its own branded beauty and nutrition products, which it markets on its websites. On its filing documents, the company reported total annual sales of over $1.5 billion in 2019.
The IPO will be the London Stock Exchange's first major share sale worth more than 500 million euros. The last major share sale on the bourse was Airtel Africa and Trainline's IPOs back in June of last year.
The Hut Group's IPO has been seen by some analysts as a good indication of a possible revival in the UK's capital markets. As stock prices continue to surge and recover globally, UK companies will likely want to move quickly to meet the pent-up demand among investors in the region.
Outside of the UK, IPO activity has been quite busy, particularly in China and the United States. Last month was the busiest on record for the U.S. in terms of new public offerings. According to Dealogic, more than 41 companies listed their shares in exchanges all around the country.
In China, IPO activities have been equally busy. Alibaba Group's financial technology arm Ant Group is expected to launch concurrent listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai's NASDAQ-style Star Market. The listings are expected to be the largest in the nation once they are launched.
