Lord Alli Drafts In Former French Connection Exec For Indian Online IPO

The former chairman of Asos, Lord Waheed Alli, has appointed a number of UK executives as he prepares to float his Indian online venture Koovs.

Former French Connection finance director Roy Naismith has been appointed chief financial officer while Penguin Random House chair Gail Rebuck and deputy editor of British Vogue Emily Sheffield have both been appointed non-executive directors.

Lord Ali, who was chairman at Asos for a decade and owns 10 per cent of Koovs, plans a £22 million float for the business in March. About a third of the business will be floated on Aim.

Slightly less than half the business is owned by the Nahata family, which own Indian telecoms group HFCL.

Lord Alli also a Labour peer and chairman of Silvergate Media which produces children the children's television programme Octonauts.

Lord Alli told the FT: 'This is a real business. It took us eight to 10 years before people realised what was going on at Asos. It will take five years for people to understand what we’re doing here. We’re not going to profit take.'