Surfstitch goes public and finalizes purchase of Surfdome

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
Dec 19, 2014

On Tuesday, Lex Pedersen and Justin Cameron, the founders and leaders of Surfstitch, took their company public. A major player in board sports e-commerce, the company debuted on the Australian Securities Exchange in Sidney with a listing of one Australian dollar per share, and with more than 214 million shares, bringing the initial value of the company to more than 142 millions euros.

After two rocky days, stocks rebounded by 4.4% to 95 cents per share on December 18. The situation was improved by the finalization of the company’s purchase of the British e-commerce site Surfdome. Surfstitch acquired the majority interest hitherto held by Quiksilver, Inc. The board sports giant received more than 13 millions euros through the transaction.

Meanwhile, Justin Stone, founder and CEO of Surfdome, has acquired an interest in SurfStitch. He now owns 11.4 million shares, while the founders of SurfStitch respectively own 12.9 million shares (for Cameron) and 10.7 million (for Pedersen).

The founders predict a doubling of online sales of clothing and footwear by 2018.

SurfStitch now comprises the specialized sites SurfStitch, Swell and Surfdome and employs over 400 people in Australia, Europe and the United States.