Footasylum enters ‘exciting new chapter’ after raising £65.4m in IPO

Footasylum, the North West fashion retailer, has raised £65.4m from investors in an IPO.

Now valued at £171.3m, the Rochdale-headquartered company will begin its first day of dealings as a listed business from next week (November 2).

Footasylum was established in 2005 by entrepreneur David Makin, one of the two co-founders of retailer JD Sports. His fellow JD founder John Wardle later joined the business.

The IPO, led by CEO Clare Nesbitt, will give the company the funding and platform to continue expanding with store openings and new online retail activities.

Footasylum recorded an EBITDA of £11.2m against revenues of £147m in FY2017, with an estate of 61 retail sites and an ecommerce platform that accounts for 30% of sales.

Now, the firm is looking to increase its market share with eight to 10 store openings per year, with capacity for at least 150 locations UK wide.

Investment firm GCA Altium acted as financial and nominated adviser to Footasylum on the deal, led by Phil Adams, Dominic Orsini and Tom Battersby of the Manchester team along with Sam Fuller, Laura Meaden and Tim Richardson from the company’s London office.

CEO Clare said: “Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the Footasylum story.

“We are delighted that our product-led, multi-channel expansion strategy has resonated so strongly with investors, and are thrilled to have received such a strong level of demand for the IPO.”

She added: “We are very pleased with the outcome and it was a pleasure to work with the GCA Altium team throughout.”

GCA Altium chief exec Phil Adams commented: “It has been a fantastic experience working with such a driven management team and group of founding shareholders.

“Footasylum has shown remarkable growth and has a great platform to continue this both online and in physical stores.”

Sam Fuller, managing director at GCA Altium, said of the transaction: “Footasylum is a cracking business, combining traditional bricks and mortar retail expertise, a fast-growing online presence and a young dynamic management team and we look forward to working with them post-IPO.

“This deal represents GCA Altium’s 13th UK consumer transaction in the last 12 months, reinforcing our reputation as one of the leading mid-market consumer sector M&A advisors.”

A team at professional services giant Deloitte, led by Jodi Birkett, Tim Grogan, Anika Keys and Raza Mian, provided due diligence.