Ive aims for $150m ASX listing

Blue Star parent company Ive Group will have another crack at going public this year, targeting a $150m market value.

Ive’s owners are in talks on the details of the offer size, price and structure of the IPO and could begin marketing it as early as next week, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The news has taken the market by surprise as a second attempt was not expected so soon following the company calling off its first attempt in June after falling short of its target.

Details of the IPO are yet to be determined, but last time the target was to raise $100-112m and it is understood it only got about two thirds of the way there before Ive pulled the plug.

[Related: Ups and downs of Blue Star]

This time’s $150m market value target is down from $200m last time, meaning the IPO target is also likely to be lower and more attainable. AFR says this would give investors a dividend yield of close to eight per cent.

It would still be the biggest stock market float in Australian printing history and cap off a big year for the marketing communications company, which includes Australia’s biggest sheetfed printer, and which is now a major wide format player following a series of acquisitions over the past 18 months.

Ive executive chairman Geoff Selig told ProPrint the time is not yet right to comment on the development. He said in June that the company would try again when the market was more stable and it seems now is the time.

Floating the company was the initial plan of Champ p/e when it created Blue Star a decade ago, before it hit the skids in 2012 after years of losses, causing Selig backed by Wolseley to buy it.

The Selig-Wolseley partnership was said to be a five year plan and the timing to have a second go at an ASX float has investors thinking they are keen for a sale.

Ive is forecasting $355.7m revenue, $37.5m EBITDA and $19m in profit for 2016.

Investment management companies Bell Potter and Evans and Partners, the same two as last time, are advising Ive on the plan.

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