Jan 19, 2021
Moonpig confirms London IPO with £1.2bn valuation target
Moonpig has confirmed plans to float in London next month, with the greeting cards company targeting a valuation of up to £1.2bn. The internet retailer, which in 2016 was bought by private equity firm Exponent, has been boosted by the pandemic, as shop closures pushed people to buy online and social-distancing rules preventing celebratory meetups prompted many to send cards and gifts instead. Exponent is set to float at least a quarter of the company and fund managers BlackRock and tech investor Dragoneer Global Fund have committed to buying £130m worth of shares. Moonpig is one of the largest among a string of online greeting card companies in the UK, such as Cardly, Thortful and WHSmith's Funky Pigeon. The company is expected to market itself to investors as a tech company rather than a retailer, arguing that data on what people browse and buy through its online stores help it better understand what customers want. In its last set of statutory accounts, for the year to the end of April 2019, Moonpig made pre-tax profit of £18.4m on revenues just shy of £100m. But sales have swelled rapidly as the group has benefited from the shift online during the pandemic. Revenues in the six months to the end of October hit £156m; in the year to April 2020 they reached £173m. Moonpig was founded 20 years ago by Dragons' Den personality Nick Jenkins, who has said the company's name came from his own high school moniker.
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