Asos announces move to London’s main market
Asos shares have jumped this morning after the firm announced it would move onto the main market of the London Stock Exchange after 20 years on the junior Aim market.
Shares in the online retail giant jumped as much as as 7.8pc in early trading after the announcement, which the firm said would allow it to deliver on its long-term growth ambitions.
Asos listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 2001 and has been one of its largest companies. Bosses said the firm planned to make the moce to the main market by the end of February 2022.
Mat Dunn, chief operating officer, said: “The time is now right to move to the main market as we focus on delivering our medium-term guidance and longer-term growth ambitions.”
The jump in share price comes after the online fashion firm yesterday revealed the impact of Omicron and a supply chain squeeze on its sales over the Christmas period.
Sales in the four months to the end of December rose just 2 per cent to £1.4bn and profits took a dent as the retailer was forced to discount heavily and spend more on shipping goods to its warehouses.
Asos’s rebound in share price comes amid a slump in retail stocks this mornings, despite strong Christmas trading results.
M&S fell almost 5 per cent in early trading while Tesco slid 1.8 per cent as investors weighed up the risks of surging inflation, which threaten to hammer household budgets in the year ahead.
The slumps come despite strong Christmas results for both firms. M&S said it had enjoyed record sales over Christmas and doubled down on profit guidance of £500m, while, Tesco said operating profit would come in slightly ahead of its previous guidance of between £2.5bn and £2.6bn.