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Doncaster furniture chain DFS eyes £1 billion float next month

Doncaster furniture chain DFS is to targeting a valuation of up to £1 billion in a London stock market listing next month.

Sky News has reported that DFS, which is owned by private equity group Advent International, will unveil plans in early February for a long-awaited flotation.

The company is predicted to say that it wants to raise well over £100 million from the IPO and that it will use the proceeds to redeem a £200 million bond.

Advent bought DFS, the UK’s second-biggest furniture retailer after IKEA, in 2010.

Sources said that Hargreaves Lansdown, the broker, has been appointed to co-ordinate a retail offering for DFS.

The eventual valuation of the company, chaired by Richard Baker, the former boss of Boots, and who also chairs Whitbread, the owner of Costa Coffee, would fall somewhere between £600 million and £1 billion depending on demand for the shares, they added.

DFS, which has recently expanded into the Netherlands, has performed robustly during difficult economic times since its 2010 buyout.

In a trading update issued to bondholders just before Christmas, Ian Filby, chief executive, said: “I am very pleased to report another strong quarterly performance, building on the momentum established in the second half of our last financial year.

“Our results aggregated for the last four quarters, covering the period ended 1 November 2014, represent a record twelve months for DFS.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .