Wesfarmers has launched marketing of its planned public float of office stationery retail business Officeworks, sending out pre-IPO marketing reports to leading fund managers.
The reports from bankers JP Morgan, Macquarie and UBS valued the office supplies, stationery and technology retailer at between A$1 billion and A$1.5 billion, according to broker James McGlew, who saw the float's marketing materials on Monday and later spoke to Reuters.
According to research by Macquarie Capital, Officeworks' management is forecasting growth in earnings before interest and tax of 7.1 per cent in 2017 and 6.9 per cent in 2018, underpinned by sales growth of 5.7 per cent in both years, said a report in The Australian Financial Review.
JPMorgan's research team had placed a price-to earnings range of 12 to 16 times financial year 2018 on the ASX aspirant, which implies an equity value of $1.14 billion to $1.52 billion.
Wesfarmers has yet to comment on the reports.
The move comes weeks after US equity giant Platinum Equity signed deals to acquire OfficeMax and Staples - the other two of the three major chains in Australia’s $10 billion-a-year office supplies market.