Koovs Listing Will Net Lord Alli £18 Million

Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli is preparing to list shares in his Indian ecommerce venture on Monday which is expected to net him £18 million in cash and shares.

Koovs will list on the London Stock Exchange’s Aim market with a valuation of £36 million. It will then subscribe for shares in Koovs India and will become the majority owner of the venture with a 57.5 per cent stake.

Koovs.com began trading in May 2010 selling electronics and mobile phones. In 2012 it established a partnership with Silvergate Retail, run by Lord Alli and his business partner Robert Bready, which began supplying it with consultancy services for fashion design.

In order to circumvent Indian laws prohibiting the foreign ownership or retail companies or multichannel retailers, Koovs will operate solely as a wholesaling entity. 

It will then act as the sole supplier to Marble E-retail Private Limited which is owned independently and the web shop window for the brand. Marble will operate the Koovs brand under licence from Koovs India.

The fund raising will raise £22 million in cash. Lord Alli will reduce his 49.9 per cent stake to 19.6 per cent. Fellow director Robert Bready will reduce his stake from 8.9 per cent to 3.5 per cent.

Exicom Tele-Systems (Singapore) Pte. Limited, which is owned by Lord Alli’s partners in India the Nahata family, will reduce its stake from 38.4 per cent to 15 per cent.

Peel Hunt acted as broker and adviser and new investors include BlackRock, Hargreave Hale, Henderson Global Investors, JO Hambro Capital and JPMorgan Asset Management, all of who own a 7.1 per cent stake.

Former French Connection finance director Roy Naismith has been appointed chief financial officer.