Online Greeting Card Retailer Moonpig Plans London Listing

(Bloomberg) -- Moonpig Group Plc said it intends to list in London, buoyed by an acceleration in online shopping amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The online greeting card and gifting platform, comprising the brands Moonpig in the U.K. and Greetz in the Netherlands, adds to the strongest start to the year for London initial public offerings since 2008, with domestic firms making a long-awaited return now that the U.K. and Brussels have struck a post-Brexit trade agreement.

Restrictions on movement to curb the spread of the coronavirus have seen consumers turn to online shopping in droves. The e-commerce boom last year spurred other e-commerce companies, such as THG Holdings Plc and Allegro.eu SA, to list in the U.K. and Poland, respectively. Since their IPOs, THG shares have surged 58%, while Allegro is up 87%.

Moonpig Group held a 60% market share in the U.K. among online card specialists in 2019 and a 65% share in the Netherlands among the top three online card players in 2019, the company said, citing estimates.

“As the leaders of the accelerating shift to online now is the perfect time for us to bring the company to the public market,” Nickyl Raithatha, chief executive officer of Moonpig Group, said in a statement. At least 25% of Moonpig’s share capital will be available for trading upon listing, the company said on Tuesday, adding that it expects to be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE U.K. indexes.

The company is backed by Exponent Private Equity Partners, which owns a 41.3% stake. Moonpig did not provide details on the size of the IPO.

Its revenue rose 44% to 173.1 million pounds ($234.6 million) in the year ended April 30, while its underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was 44.4 million pounds, representing an underlying Ebitda margin of 26%, the statement showed.

Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are joint global co-ordinators, while HSBC Bank Plc​​​​, Jefferies International Ltd. and Numis Securities Ltd. are joint bookrunners.

(Updates to add details on the IPO market.)