LONDON (ShareCast) - The former Chairman of online fashion sensation Asos (Other OTC: ASOMY - news) has set out plans to float an Indian copycat online retailer on London's AIM.

Koovs has set out plans to raise £22m with its initial public offer (IPO), according to the Financial Times.

Lord Waheed Alli, the media baron who chaired Asos between 2003 and 2012, is chair of Koovs and has brought in former Asos director Robert Bready as Creative & Retail Director, who will be backed by a design and buying team based in London.

Bangalore-based Koovs was founded in 2010 as a daily deals website, but switched course to 'lifestyle e-tailing' in 2012 when a large stake was taken by Anant Nahata, scion of the family that runs India's HFCL telecoms group.

Koovs, which even has adopted a very similar website design to Asos, now focuses on affordable western fashion rather than Indian ethnic clothing, aping celebrity fashions to appeal to middle-class working men and women aged 18-30 years, exactly like the London-based company.

The owners plan to float about 35% of the company with 44% owned by the Nahata family, 11% by Lord Alli and the remainder with management.

StockMarketWire.com
Koovs, the fashion-forward business focused on the young Indian e-commerce market, has announced an update on its intention to raise capital as previously announced on 22 May.

The company said it proposed to raise up to £18.9 million via the issue of secured convertible loan notes,

The company said it had entered into non-binding heads of terms under which certain investors have indicated interest in acquiring approximately £8.9 million of convertible loan notes, including £7.4 million from Lord Waheed Alli, a director of the company.

The company said it had also received a strong indication of interest for a further £7.5 million of convertible loan notes, which the company would seek to finalise in due course, and had the potential to secure up to a further £2.5 million.

cynic/HARRYCAT.... I understand Issuing shares for cash, creating investor dilution, which is bad. Issuing Loan-notes can be dodgy, if/as? they can be recalled at a moment's notice and possibly creating a massive funding-hole. However, if the loan is properly serviced it will be repaid ( e.g soon after New Plant goes into production, etc.).
So, the sp is slowly moving down ;( - but I suspect this is because they aren't producing stuff on new plant - so "profits" don't meet the Hype which created the sp leap earlier.
BTW I've just reached 38p-"evens" with earlier av. purchases inc. charges.

Reading their RNS everything looks rosy - but the Market doesn't like it, reading the sp.

Any thoughts where this is going?
EDIT (25July2017)- Thanks, both . . . I'm on a limb here....and that Loan-Note looks like dilution of sorts.... possibly the reason sp has pulled back.
+I don't know their Market either, but look at Jimmy Choo - Women buy their stuff when their cupboard is already full.... EH?
cynic...Dir bank Accounts? .... so which companies ( other than J-Lewis) is there a company whose Dirs aren't looking for themselves? We can't know about this one, other than it's a large target Market and they have money to spend . . . My only concern is they appear to need more, just to stay solvent.... That GM soon... is at a "Stay-Away-time" with the trains and transport being especially difficult.

personally, i have never liked this company at all
have always felt it was a way for the directors to fill their bank accounts

confess i didn't think much of BOO for a long time either, but eventually changed my mind and have done very well with it

This is one I have watched for some time, but never committed any money. No particular reason, but lots of other better prospects out there, imo. What do I know about the teen/20's Indian fashion market? Absolutely zero. Have had a look at the website and wasn't overly impressed, but then again I am not their target market. Not for me atm this one.

General Meeting will be held on 14 August - could be interesting SP wise.

StockMarketWire.com
Koovs, the fashion-forward business focused on the young Indian e-commerce market, reported sustained growth and market outperformance for the year ended 31 March.

Koovs said it saw strong gross sales order value growth at Koovs.com up 65%/87% to INR1,616m/£18.6m (2016: INR981m/£10.0m).

Other highlights:
- Positive trading margin at +4% (2016: -6%) driven by improved intake margin and managing the markdown

- Pre-tax loss stable at INR1,691.3m/£19.3m (2016: INR1,650.4m/£16.7m) reflecting implementation of capital discipline and cost control measures

- Koovs plc revenue up by 49% at INR761m/£8.7m (2016: INR512.4m/£5.2m)

Chief executive Mary Turner said: "We are pleased to have delivered strong sales growth, significantly outperforming India's e-commerce market by over five times during the challenging period of demonetisation, which affected the whole economy in India.

"Our highly distinctive and targeted brand marketing has further established Koovs fashion authority among our core market of India's 18 to 34-year-olds.

"The focus for FY18 is to build on these foundations for sustainable growth towards profitability in FY20 and to further capitalise on the unique growth prospects of India's fashion e-commerce market, for the benefit of our shareholders."

the market has the correct measure of this bunch
to be avoided!

Anyone going to their AGM...in London, 10am Friday 29Sept"17...(DYOR)... ?

I won't be going hangon, but suspect that it might be a fiesty session with the sp continually trending down. Four year chart is not pretty!

Watching from the sidelines with interest...

has been a mug's share from the outset ....... sorry but true and as posted at the time

StockMarketWire.com
Koovs is adding its Koovs Private Label young fashion brand to N Brown's high profile Simply Be arm.

The partnership will see a capsule Koovs collection available from Simply Be in exclusive larger sizes from December 2017, followed by a more extensive range for spring/summer 2018, rolling out in March 2018.

Koovs said this announcement, and the planned distribution in the UAE through Souq.com which was expected to go live within the next three weeks, further accelerates its international ambitions for its Private Label collection.

Chief executive Mary Turner said: 'We are absolutely delighted to be working with N Brown and to bring the Koovs young fashion brand to the UK with Simply Be, a brand that celebrates and empowers all women whatever their size, through fun and exciting fashion.'

i don't see anything about the company even moving towards profitablility or failing that, the directors cutting back their no-doubt massive salaries aqnd other perks

This is how to do it - Fashion house loved by Beyonce and Kim Kardashion to be floated by its 25-year-old founder

StockMarketWire.com
Koovs, the fashion-forward business focused on the young Indian e-commerce market, said it would be seeking a renewal of permission for the issue of up to £18.9m of convertible loan notes in the company.

It said that in addition to the £8.9m which had previously been received, the company remained in advanced negotiations to secure a term sheet from an investor committing to invest via the issue of convertible loan notes.

The company said it remained confident of delivering this further tranche of convertible loan notes and expected to announce the successful conclusion of this additional funding in due course.

and how much are the directors skimming out?

I attended their AGM, punters outnumbering Dirs present due to lost-tickets, illness or whatever (DYOR). However, Whilst the sp has drifted down - it's not altogether their fault...Markets!
What I'd like to know is about these "Convertible Loan Notes" for about £9m from RNS.... aren't these the same as Dilution? What is the advantage to the Company ( OR shareholders for that matter)...?
FWIW, I got the impression they were " steady-as-she-goes" - but that could be part of a massive CON..... only Time will tell. KOOV sp is 24p up from the recent 19p prior to engaging some N.Brown clothing contract... Sadly I know nowt about Indian fashions, but expect they are as silly as teens/20's here; where having the latest "gear" is at any price.... The "trick" is having what SELLS in modest quantity so it commands a high profit. The "business" is about Building a Fashion-Platform for must-check website selling . . . hopefully this won't involve anyone else..... so K gets all the profit.
Anyone pse. explain the above "Convertible" Q?

Koovs always was a crap company .... why should anyone think it is any different now?
How much do the directors strip out?

StockMarketWire.com
First half losses at Koovs fell by 15% to £7.8m and trading margin increased significantly to 18% (H1 FY17: 2%) as the group focused on high quality sales.

Gross sales for the six months to the end of September were unchanged at £7.9m but it said this was in line with India's ecommerce market which was flat, impacted by demonetisation, the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, and heavy discounting and marketing expenditure by sector peers.

Koovs said the quality of sales improved with markdown sales reduced to 20% of sales (H1 FY17: 29%) in a market driven by high discounting.

Koovs said it remained well placed to maximise the future growth of the Indian ecommerce market and expects the market to return to growth in the next financial year.

Chief executive Mary Turner said: 'I am pleased with the progress we have made in our business fundamentals.

'Year on year Trading Margin has been improved from 2% to 18% and Brand Awareness is up from 15% to 21%. In addition, Koovs is now ranked No1 for customer experience by Forrester Research and has the highest Net Promotor Score in the fashion vertical (RedSeer) ahead of Amazon and Flipkart.

'It has been a challenging year generally for the market, however with these strong business fundamentals, Koovs is well positioned to capitalise further on the growth opportunity.'

onwards and downwards :-)