Sofa giant DFS confirms £105m IPO on the London Stock Exchange
DFS Furniture has confirmed plans for an international public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange, through which it hopes to raise £105m to reduce debts and future financing costs.
The furniture retailer, which is owned by private equity firm Advent International, says it has a quarter of the share of the UK's £3bn upholstered furniture market. It has 105 stores in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.
The offer will include new shares and a partial sale of shares held by its owner Advent as well as members of the retailer's management team.
DFS had adjusted core earnings of £85.2m in the year to November 1 and its total sales rose nine per cent in the 26 weeks to January 15.
Ian Filby, CEO of DFS, said: "Our vision is to take DFS from being a great British business to a world class business.
"This is an exciting time for us as we continue to drive growth initiatives that are already underway against a backdrop of an improving macroeconomic environment.
"We see significant opportunity to further increase the group's penetration in the UK, strengthen our position as the market leader for online upholstered furniture sales and we recently entered Continental Europe with the opening of our first store in the Netherlands."