IPO date set! Made.com valued at £775m

Foreign media reported that the British Made.com platform is about to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in London , priced at 200 pence per share.

The online furniture retailer unveiled plans for the listing last month, with the IPO expected to raise £100m in new funds, with existing investors also selling £93.8m worth of shares. It said trading on the group's listing would begin on June 21 .

Made.com aims to invest the cash raised in further development across Europe and to expand its homewares range . Its IPO comes amid a surge in demand for homewares during the pandemic and a shift towards online retail.

Made.com CEO Philippe Chainieux said the IPO was “an exciting milestone for Made”. “Listing in London, where the company was founded, will enable us to accelerate growth as we lead the online furniture and homewares market both in the UK and internationally . ”

Made.com also joins a fast-growing list of big-name retailers including The Hut Group, Moonpig, Dr Martens, In The Style, Made.com, The Very Group, MyTheresa, MusicMagpie, Virgin Wines, Hotter Shoes and Poundland parent company Pepco.

Made.com said total sales rose 30% to £315m in 2020, with growth accelerating further in the first quarter of 2021, up 63% year-on-year. It aims to have net sales of more than £1.2bn by 2025.

Trading at high street rival DFS has also been impressive, with orders almost doubling in the past 10 weeks since stores reopened compared with 2019. DFS also saw online orders nearly triple in the third quarter, when stores remained closed, suggesting consumers are now more willing to buy so-called big-ticket items such as sofas over the internet.

Made.com was founded in the UK in 2010 by Hoberman and Ning Li and has expanded across Europe since 2013, with Spain being its latest new market in 2018. In the first three months of 2021, approximately 52% of total sales came from the UK market, with the rest coming from continental Europe.

IPO

Made.com

U.K.