About You: Online fashion retailer plans to go public in the second quarter

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Stars and starlets

... the fashion retailer About You uses again and again like influencers (in the picture Heidi Klum at the presentation of the "About you" award)

Photo: Matthias Balk / DPA

The IPO of the online fashion retailer About You is getting closer.

The company wants to make the leap onto the Frankfurt floor by the end of June.

Subject to the market situation, About You should still be listed in the second quarter, the company announced on Thursday in Hamburg.

manager magazin had already reported on the stock market plans of About You boss Tarek Müller in November.

With the issue of new shares, the company is aiming for gross proceeds of at least 600 million euros.

A private placement of new shares from a capital increase and shares of existing shareholders is planned.

A large part of the proceeds should be put into the expansion of the business, it said.

The Hamburg mail order giant Otto is one of the existing shareholders.

In a private placement, only selected investors - mostly institutional investors - can acquire shares. If the unit certificates are only sold to fewer than 100 professional investors, there is also no obligation to publish a prospectus. Private investors can only get hold of a share as soon as it is traded on the stock exchange.

Another company is going public in Germany with the IPO (Initial Public Offering) of About You.

In the past few months, the Franconian Linux software provider Suse, the Swabian gear manufacturer Hgears, the radio tower division of the British telecommunications group Vodafone Vantage Towers and the Berlin online used car dealer Auto1 have all been listed in Frankfurt.

The online new car dealer MeinAuto Group, however, postponed its planned IPO in mid-May due to "unfavorable market conditions".

For the first time billions in sales - but further losses

About You achieved sales of more than one billion euros for the first time in the 2020/2021 financial year.

Nevertheless, the company continues to write an operating loss.

The margin on adjusted operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) improved from minus nine to minus three percent, but remains negative.

After all: in the final quarter, the company reportedly operated profitably on the basis of the adjusted operating result.

Artificial intelligence and influencers should attract young customers

About You expects further growth in the new financial year.

Compared to the same period in the previous year, the Management Board expects net sales to grow by 40 to 50 percent in the 2021/2022 financial year.

The company wants to benefit from the fact that people shop less in brick-and-mortar stores and instead increasingly discover online shopping for themselves.

About You uses influencers and artificial intelligence to attract the attention of young customers who are receptive to social media and digital marketing.

The company is currently represented in 23 European markets.

About You was founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of the Otto Group.

Again and again there has recently been speculation about an IPO of the online fashion retailer.

rei / dpa-afx