Germany's About You grows by 60% and may go public

According to foreign media Business Insider and German online magazine Gründerszene , Hamburg-based online fashion retailer "About You" is preparing for an IPO.

Fashion e-commerce platform About You is a subsidiary of the OTTO Group. Once it went public, it developed rapidly. In 2019, the platform ranked fourth in the list of best-selling online retailers in the fashion field.

According to the entry in the commercial register, the three founders , including Tarek Müller , and the shareholders converted the holding company "About You" into a public company shortly before Easter and at the same time formed the first supervisory board. These are the usual and necessary steps for listing a company on the stock exchange. In addition, the three founders formed the board of directors in a new format .

For some time, there have been rumors in the industry that the emerging online fashion retailer will have an initial public offering. But the company long ago announced that the long-term goal of "About You" is to go public. A spokesperson for parent company OTTO also denied the IPO rumors.

But in October last year, the magazine Manager Magazin said: "About You" plans to IPO in March next year, with a valuation of about 3 billion euros. At that time, in response to these rumors, OTTO's majority shareholders said: "We are shocked by this speculation . "

But on Thursday morning, according to a report by foreign media Business Insider , the attitude of OTTO's leadership has changed, and they have remained silent on the IPO plans speculated by the media .

It is reported that About You had planned to merge with Zalando, the leader of European online fashion retailers . However , this plan may be shelved because About You has grown too rapidly .

According to the commercial register , OTTO subsidiary "About You" achieved sales of over 1.2 billion euros in 2020 , higher than the October forecast of 1.1 billion euros . At the same time, sales increased by about 60% compared with the previous year . In contrast, Zalando's sales only increased by 23 % in 2020 .

About You management expects sales to increase further in 2021 , and they want to continue growing on their own.

Managing Director Tarek Müller also expects sales this year to be significantly higher than last year . However , losses are also expected, but these losses are planned , and the net loss this year is planned to be reduced from 8.7 million euros last year to 5.3 million euros .

Otto

Germany

About You