Street Talk

Koala pulls $100m IPO, plans to sleep through Trump tariffs

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Jun 2, 2025 – 4.55pm

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Sydney’s Koala, the online furniture retailer founded a decade ago, has decided the time is, after all, not right for its ASX debut – thanks to Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Koala and its bankers at Barrenjoey have deferred plans for an IPO that would have seen it raise $100 million and land on the ASX after several years in the pipeline of potential float candidates.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.