Australia’s largest online book retailer Booktopia is aiming to raise $40 million for its initial public offering as it pushes ahead with plans to float on the ASX in the face of increased competition from US giant Amazon and its UK-based subsidiary The Book Depository.
Booktopia had planned to make a run at the ASX boards in May this year and organised site trips for fund managers to the company’s headquarters in Sydney’s western suburbs. However, the company decided to put the plans on hold until after the August reporting season.
The book retailer is now seeking to raise $40 million at $2 a share, which would value the company's equity at $105.1 million, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review.
Fund managers are due to meet with the company in Sydney on Tuesday. Brokers last week valued the company at $120m-$130m in pre-marketing reports. Analysts forecast $104.5m revenue in the 2017 financial year, $127.3m in 2018, $150.3m in 2019 and $174.5m in 2020.
The Australian-owned online-only retail store has almost doubled its sales since the 2015 acquisition of its largest Australian competitor, Bookworld – the online retail arm of publisher Penguin Random House – which boosted its share of the local online book market from 62% to more than 80%.
CEO and major shareholder Tony Nash, who founded Booktopia 13 years ago with his brother, sister and brother-in-law, said in March: “There are no guarantees when you prepare for an IPO, but we are definitely doing everything to ensure…we’re ready.”
The family owns more than 90 per cent of the business. Nash said he planned to sell some of his shares but most of the capital raised in the IPO would be used to fund expansion.
Booktopia’s 10,000-square-metre automated distribution centre at Homebush in Sydney holds 750,000 units with 110,000 titles in stock.