Ellerston Capital and Soul Patts among Booktopia backers for $300m float
Online book retailer Booktopia has attracted boutique investment house Ellerston Capital and Washington H. Soul Pattinson to its share registry.
Online book retailer Booktopia has attracted boutique investment house Ellerston Capital and 117-year-old conglomerate Washington H. Soul Pattinson to its share registry as it prepares for its $300m sharemarket float slated for Thursday.
The float comes as online retail has entered boomtime conditions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in which other ASX-listed retailers, such as Kogan.com and Temple & Webster, have witnessed rocketing sales and a surging stock.
The offer price is $2.30 a share, with total proceeds of the float to be $43.1m and the book retailer to emerge on the market with a market capitalisation of $315.8m and enterprise value of $299.5m.
Booktopia was founded in 2004 in Sydney by chief executive Tony Nash, Simon Nash and Steven Traurig.
The company’s prospectus states that in the 2020 fiscal year Australians spent about $2.5bn on books (including e-books) and bought 36 per cent of those online.
In 2020, Booktopia had about 6 per cent market share of Australian book sales, making it the largest Australian-owned online book retailer by market share.
The company booked pro-forma revenue of $111.5m in 2018, $129.1m in 2019, $165.8m in 2020 and is forecasting $204.5m in 2021. The prospectus states Booktopia recorded a net loss of $900,000 in 2019, a profit of $200,000 in 2020 and a forecast profit of $700,000 in 2021.
“Booktopia Group has built an experienced senior management team, most of whom have been with the business for many years,” said group chairman Chris Beare in the chairman’s letter in the prospectus.
“The business has earned several accolades from the industry over that time. Booktopia Group prides itself in knowing and understanding the needs of its book-buying public. We are proud to have 2.3 million repeat customers.”
According to the top 20 shareholders report issued to the ASX, the biggest shareholder in Booktopia upon listing will be Tony Nash with about 20 per cent. Ellerston has 3 per cent and Washington H. Soul Pattinson a stake of 2.37 per cent.
Cornerstone pre-IPO investors include Su-Ming Wong of Champ Ventures, Perennial and Regal Funds management, which have maintained or increased their holdings in the company.
Booktopia raised $20m from investors this year.
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