The French footwear and fashion e-retailer Spartoo intends to raise about €22 million from an initial public offering (IPO) now underway, with funds earmarked to accelerate growth of its footwear business, roll out new physical stores and invest in brand awareness.
The offering of shares to retail investors runs through July 1 while that reserved for institutional investors is set to conclude on July 2. Shares are slated to begin trading on the Euronext Growth segment of the Paris exchange on July 7.
Spartoo is selling a total of 3,636,363 new ordinary shares at an indicative price range of €6.53-€7.22 per share, resulting in gross proceeds of about €25 million at the midpoint and anticipated net proceeds of €22.2 million.
Existing investors, including financial shareholders and co-founders Boris Saragaglia, Jérémie Touchard and Paul Loren, are also selling 545,454 shares, which could raise an additional €627,272 should an overallotment option be wholly exercised.
As of June 21, the opening day of the offer, Spartoo had already secured subscription commitments from Financière Arbevel and Amiral Gestion of €4.0 million and €6.0 million, respectively.
Boris Saragaglia, who is also chairman and CEO of the company, said that 50-60 percent of net proceeds raised through the offering will be used to accelerate the company’s growth in footwear, as well as to develop its interior design offering and to continue with its brand acquisition strategy.
Up to 35-45 percent of funds will be used to strengthen brand awareness through investments in traditional and online media and by developing its network of physical stores. Saragaglia said the group plans to open stores at an average clip of about five per year. Spartoo currently operates six stores in France under its name and three shop-in-shops within Le Printemps department stores in Brest, Tours and Metz.
As much as 10-15 percent of funds could be used to develop third-party services, the company added. Over the past years, Spartoo has been developing a range of logistics and transport services on behalf of third parties. It claims to be able to support a company in all its logistics and transport operations.
Proceeds from the sale of new shares are at the heart of Spartoo’s planned €30 million investment program. Spartoo intends to seek additional financing if necessary.
Spartoo has reported a positive Ebitda since 2014. Between 2008 and 2020, gross merchandise value (GMV) rose by a compound annual average of 23 percent to reach €194 million last year, 39 percent of which was generated internationally. It sells some 700,000 items from 8,000 brands in over 30 countries in Europe. Last year, sales amounted to €134 million.
The company also has 16 proprietary brands, 10 of which were created in-house and the rest obtained through acquisitions such as the French shoe company JB Martin bought last year and GBB, a French brand purchased in 2017 that makes shoes for children.
Between 2021 and 2024, Spartoo is aiming to achieve compound annual growth in GMV of at least 15 percent and targets an Ebitda margin of around 7 percent in 2024. In the first quarter of 2021, GMV is seen growing by more than 30 percent compared to the year earlier.
According to Euromonitor data released by Spartoo, the European online footwear and apparel market was worth an estimated $84 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow by around 8 percent per year on average between 2020 and 2025.
