Halfords gears up for flotation
Wednesday, 19 May 2004British car accessories retailer Halfords said today it was planning a summer flotation valuing the business at £847m.
The group and its private equity backer CVC said the group would seek a stock market listing with an indicative price range of 250p to 300p per share, valuing the group's equity at £626.8m. It has debts of £220m.
Halfords said it would use the expected £282m proceeds of the offer to repay its debts.
Despite current turbulent stock market conditions, the group said it was confident that the listing would help it build on improvements made since CVC funds bought it in August 2002.
Halfords increased turnover by 10% to £578.6m in the last year and operating profits before goodwill and one-off costs by 56% to £79.2m.
The group has 387 stores in the UK at employs around 9,000 staff. Last year it was reported that Halfords was looking at opening stores in Ireland.
