Fashion retailer New Look coming back to the market
Six years after being taken private by founder Tom Singh and two private equity companies, British fashion retailer New Look has announced plans to raise £650 million to reduce debts and give the company the opportunity to expand at home and overseas. This is the first major IPO for some time and will be seen as a barometer of investor appetite for new share issues.
While the controlling parties will retain the vast majority of their share stakes in the company it is believed that a "limited" number of shares could be sold by Tom Singh and the two private equity firms involved in the deal. This particular deal has been in the offing for some time and if successful is likely to see a growing wave of new IPOs coming to the market.
Even though the stock market is going through a difficult patch after a fairly positive end to 2009 the truth is that a "good story" will always catch the attention of investors even in the most difficult of times. Alternatively, we have also seen a number of private equity takeovers with Pets at Home only last week acquired by KKR for a surprising £955 million.
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