Consumer goods group Ultimate Products heads for a £100m-plus IPO in the next few days
Ultimate Products, the innovative consumer goods group, is set for a £100m-plus IPO in London within days. It will list on the main market under the name of UP Global Sourcing Holdings.
The IPO’s pricing could take place as early as today. The placing is understood to be substantially oversubscribed with investors taking part believed to include Henderson, Blackrock, Schroders and M&G.
Shore Capital are the brokers bringing the company to market in one of the biggest floats of the year so far.
A rapidly growing ‘house of brands’ based in a former mill in Oldham, Greater Manchester, Ultimate Products also has an office and showroom in Guangzhou in China. The group employs more than 200 staff.
For the year ended July 2016, revenue was up 23 per cent to £79m. Continuing profit before tax was up 50 per cent to £7.5m, with strong growth understood to have continued since.
Ultimate Products develops, designs, sources and distributes a wide range of consumer products including small domestic appliances such as juicers and grills, housewares, headphones, and ironing boards. It owns the Beldray and intempo brands and licences Salter products.
The business sells around 2,500 different products to over 300 retailers across 38 countries. Customers include Amazon, Argos, B&M and Homebase.
Nearly three quarter of sales are in the UK but it is understood that the firm sees scope to leverage its British heritage brands in other markets.
CEO Simon Showman founded the business in 1997. Managing director Andy Gossage, joined in 2005 when Lloyds Development Capital acquired a 46 per cent stake. Ultimate recently appointed Jim McCarthy, formerly of Poundland, as chairman.
They see three key growth drivers: online, with discounters such as B&M and with supermarkets such as Aldi, Asda, Lidl, and Morrisons.
The group has a track record of acquiring brands, often from distressed sellers, and successfully re-launching them.
The Ultimate Team Behind the Deal:
Shore Capital, is acting as Sponsor, Global Co-ordinator and joint Bookrunner.
Mark Percy, 48, joined Shore as a director in 2015. In that year, he led the IPO of Stride Gaming and organised a £27m Secondary Placing for the business last year to fund £70m of acquisitions. Prior to joining Shore he was a Managing Director at Seymour Pierce. Mark started his career as an accountant at Price Waterhouse.
Edward Mansfield, assistant director, joined Shore in 2008. A keen Harlequins supporter, the 34-year-old worked on the Yu Group and Amryt Pharma IPOs last year.
Clive Black, head of research, one of the UK’s top-rated retail analysts, winning the accolade of CityAM analyst of the year in 2013. Outside of work, Clive is a keen Coventry City fan.
Malachy McIntyre, head of sales, joined Shore in 2004 and was promoted to head of sales in 2010. He heads up a team of 13 sales people and sits on the Shore Capital Markets Board. He started his career in his native Dublin with Goodbody Stockbrokers before moving to Asset Manager, Tilney Investment Management.
John Ritchie is Head of Small & Mid-cap sales at Shore Capital having joined the firm in 2003 when the capital markets division was established.
Dr Darren Shirley, Analyst Consumer Goods was ranked No.1. picker in Europe for Food & Staples Retailing in the 2016 Starmine awards and No.3 in UK 2016 Extel Rankings for Mid-Cap consumer goods whilst also being a key part of Shore Capital’s No.3 ranked Retail and Consumer Goods team.
Hill Dickinson, Solicitors to the company: Partners Ian Gillis and Jonathan Gillow, based in the company’s Manchester office worked on the deal. Ian is head of corporate in Manchester and covers IPOs on the main market and AIM.
Osborne Clarke, Solicitors to Shore Capital: Partner Jonathan King.