British e-commerce company Moonpig successfully went public, with its share price rising 25% on the first day

British online greeting card retailer Moonpig reportedly launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday, and its share price rose 25% in just a few minutes, attracting much attention.

Moonpig shares rise 25% after IPO

It is reported that Moonpig was initially sold at 3.5 pounds (4.79 US dollars) per share, but within less than an hour after trading began, the stock rose 25% to 4.4 pounds (6.02 US dollars), allowing it to ultimately raise 491 million pounds (672 million US dollars) in funds.

Moonpig's chairman Kate Swann is helping with the listing as the company seeks to further tap into the £24 billion greeting card and gift market in the UK, Netherlands and Ireland, and rapidly shifts to online business. Its chief executive Nickyl Raithatha also said in a statement: "With the market accelerating its shift to online business, now is the perfect time for us to take the company public and we are excited about Moonpig's prospects for growth."

Moonpig is the second-largest listing in the U.K. this year, after shoe retailer Dr. Martens. The London Stock Exchange valued the company at 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) for its listing, with the shares floating under the ticker "MOON." By comparison, rival Card Factory has a market value of just 118 million pounds.

Moonpig accelerates e-commerce business development, focusing on online greeting cards

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in London, Moonpig is the leader in the UK online greeting card market. Its website sells a wide range of products, including more than 20,000 greeting cards and a range of gifts such as flowers, mugs and chocolates. Moonpig said that customers can order 46 million cards and 7 million gifts online every year.

During the epidemic, people had to stay at home and could not celebrate holidays and parties with their families and friends. Online gifts and greeting cards could help people strengthen their emotional connections. Therefore, Moonpig was greatly encouraged and its online business developed rapidly.

The company said that only 10% of British people bought greeting cards online in 2019, but this will double to 20% in 2021. Moonpig has a 60% share of the UK online greeting card market ; in the Dutch market, trading as "Greetz", it has a 65% market share.

For the fiscal year ending April 30, 2020, Moonpig 's net profit was £44.4 million, with sales of £173.1 million, up 44% year-on-year, of which the Moonpig division contributed £126.5 million and the Greetz division contributed £46.6 million.

Moonpig, which has 12.2 million active customers and about 450 employees, is now trying to use customer information and predictive technology to remind customers of their birthdays and redeem extra gifts.

Cross-border e-commerce market

U.K.

Moonpig