Dr Martens IPO: yes, it really is happening

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 18, 2021

First there were the rumours, then last week the confirmation that Dr Martens was "considering" a stock market launch. But on Monday, the company said it definitely will be floating on the London Stock Exchange.

As previously reported, it plans to list on the LSE’s main market, rather than the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) that’s popular with many listed fashion firms, including star names Asos and Boohoo.

The offer will comprise a secondary sell-down of existing shares by IngreLux S.àr.l., which is a Luxembourg-based company owned by funds advised by Permira, and certain other existing shareholders of the company.

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It will target institutional investors and immediately following admission, it’s targeting a free float of at least 25% of its issued share capital. It expects that it would be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE UK indices. It’s also expected that shares representing up to a further 15% of the offer will be made available “pursuant to an over-allotment option”.

We don’t yet know what the offer price of the shares will be, but that information should be released early next month following a process in which the firm gauges the strength of demand.

And there could be strong demand for the shares as the company continues to prosper, despite the pandemic. In the six-month period to the end of September, when stores were shuttered for much of that time and footwear was an unpopular category, the company’s sales rose 18% to almost £320 million.