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.

https://www.henderson.com/ukpi/expert/30/expert/neil-hermon

Neil Hermon, of Henderson adds Kooves to his fund ----


30th April 2014:

"Investment trust manager Neil Hermon adds clothes retailer and infrastructure holding after selling F&C.

Henderson Global Investors’ Neil Hermon has divested his holding in F&C Asset Management following the takeover bid from Canadian group BMO.

Mr Hermon said in a client update for his £546m Smaller Companies Investment Trust that the sale of the fund group was one of a pair of disposals during the month.

The proceeds helped him purchase new positions in clothing retailer KOOVS...

Mr Hermon said his new position in Koovs was taken in part because of its ambition to exploit the growth of online retail fashion in India.

“We believe it is a credible proposition as it is run by the founders of Asos who have significant experience in this market,” Mr Hermon said.

Source:
www.ftadviser.com/2014/04/30/investments/investment-trusts/hermon-divests-holding-in-f-c-after-bmo-takeover-SdS880mP3yp0OJD404uvHN/article.html

Rated buy --- Peel Hunt, target 220p

rated rubbish in my books :-)

http://yourstory.com/2011/06/benefitsplus-moves-into-the-daily-deal-space-by-investing-in-koovs-com/

Good prelims, sales up by 57% and traffic up by 46%. Fantastic demographic to capitalise on in a market that wants westernised products with an age group that has good disposable income. They only have to obtain a small percentage of the market to reap the benefits.

it's very clear what the market thinks of this company

and you cynic ;). I'm happy to wait years - bit like buying Asos at 50p pre the first warehouse fiasco. No reaction enables me to buy more as more information hits the public domain.

More Koovs music industry/fashion promos - going well.

http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/fashion/musical-muse/

the chart tells you all
this company is crap and was floated solely to fill the wallets of the directors

as i wrote back in march, "looks like another spiffing mug-punters ipo"

Totally disagree. Let's look in a year or two.

does one assume that you bought in at 180/200?

180 and 140 and possibly adding more when I've got funds in the right place (ISA), but I'm in for the long term. The market they are attracting in India is vast and the age group in question has quite a high disposal income. Middle class Indian women are not getting married so young, moving to the cities and wanting a western influence. I wouldn't underestimate the 2 ex-Asos directors. They only have to tap the market to see quite a company impact in my opinion.

http://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/Koovs-com-reviews-925617145

No offence to no one but asos is all about robertson, he is sort of s jobs in apple. Others just contibute.

the chart tells you all ..... modesty forbids to me to comment further

perhaps Greyhound has something to add :-)

I sold out fortunately before incurring further losses. Still holding BOO though. The lesson is to be stricter with stop loss.

so your "long term" didn't last very long then :-)
and of course no need to look further "in a year or two" either

I still like the location/demographic and story but when funding is required for start-ups, this market is unforgiving. I don't believe it's a poor business but sometimes have to preserve capital and cut losses. I shall still follow and look in a year or two - and either be grateful or curse the decision. So a stinging loss on this one but my riskier investments funded from Asos gains fortunately. Win some, lose some - this one clearly the latter!

but it was fun to tease you :-)

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by the way, and to some extent similar though a totally different field, you may want to take a look at RM2

I shall remember that ;)