Footasylum shares rise on debut day, is it the next Asos or Boohoo?

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 3, 2017

Newly-listed shares may not always trade strongly as we’ve seen several times this year, but Footasylum did at least hit the stock market with a bang on its debut day Thursday and its shares soared by over 23% in the few hours after its arrival on London’s Alternative Investment Market.

That said, the price fell back slightly on Friday but still remained well above the listing price of £1.64 per share that initially gave the firm a market capitalisation of £171 million.

That £171 million figure was blown out of the water by the strong trading and at its high on Thursday, the company’s market cap was £214 million.

While the share price may not matter much to many in the fashion sector, it is nonetheless reflective of the regard in which the business is held. And it suggests that if Footasylum can successfully execute its medium-term plan to more than double its store count to 150, it could turn into another AIM market star like e-tailers Asos or Boohoo.

The last few months have been relatively busy on the fashion IPO front with others to have listed including France’s SMCP, which debuted on the Euronext Paris exchange last month. Its share price is currently running very slightly below the debut figure, despite having risen higher in recent weeks. 

Another listing on AIM that soared initially was Quiz Clothing this summer. However, its shares are currently  changing hands at 160p, down from their 190p debut.

While Footasylum’s successful debut underlines the dynamism in the business itself, it’s also a testament to the current strength of the athleisure sector and the sports shoe sector.

Footasylum was founded 12 years ago by JD Sports co-founder David Makin with the other JD co-founder John Wardle joining him three years latter (the J and D in JD Sports stands for John and David).

It now has to make the most of its strength in the competitive sports fashion market and that will be the job of CEO Clare Nesbitt. Aged 30 and Makin’s daughter, she’s the youngest top executive at a UK-listed company as a result of this week’s IPO.

Around £45 million of the cash raised from the listing will be used to fund its expansion plans. The company generated underlying earnings of £11.2 million last year on revenue of £147 million and investors will be watching to see how steadily that rises as the business opens between eight and 10 stores a year.