Department store House of Fraser is set to capitalise on its success selling on the internet with a stock market float early next year.
The retailer, which has exemplified the opportunities for high street retailers in 'clicks and bricks', has been interviewing investment bankers about the plan and is expected to appoint advisers in the next few weeks, according to The Sunday Times.
Sources told the newspaper that the 61-store retailer's owners hoped to float the business early next year, 'after Christmas trading numbers come through'. It said the business could be valued at between £300 million and £400 million.
The department store has a complicated shareholding structure after it was taken private seven years ago by Baugur, which subsequently went bust. The shares reverted to Baugur's Icelandic lenders while many of the directors also hold substantial stakes.
House of Fraser is 35 per cent owned by failed Icelandic bank Landsbanki, which in turn is controlled by the Icelandic government. The department store's chairman Don McCarthy owns 22 per cent. Scottish retail tycoon Sir Tom Hunter and former Karen Millen owner Kevin Stanford each own around 10 per cent.
Gross sales at House of Fraser, which include concession partner's revenue, increased 3.3 per cent to £1.2 billion in the year to January 26 after a 53 per cent rise in web sales.
The business was bought in 2006 at the height of the private equity boom for £350 million.
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