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.

Ah. Thought you had sold.

i did as a trading stock, but that was many ages ago at around 40p
i may even have been in/out within my sipp but currently hold on average from about 130 i think

Sales are improving massively, but their expansion plans appear to be outstripping their capital . . . so another round of fundraising is likely to batter the sp, hence recent slide..... who can guess it's at 30p ( Indian exchange-rate near ) . . . but with this cash they can continue to expand . . . it's just a shame no-=one told UK-Public Investors buying in the Market.
cynic - (Msg 96); that's a high price which did surprise me . . . hope things get better soon.... or will you Av-Dn as the sp falls towards the Placing price?

you misinterpreted .... #96 was actually related to BOO and not this heap of shit

Hot off the press and designed to impress Mr C!!! ;o)

StockMarketWire.com
Koovs - the fashion-forward business focused on the young Indian e-commerce market - has appointed Samantha Chilton as head of design.

Koovs said Chilton has more than 25 years' experience in affordable, young fast-fashion, working for leading brands such as Primark, Arcadia, New Look, River Island, Top Man, Warehouse and George, across womenswear and menswear on both the retail and supply side of the UK market.

More recently, she led the UK and Northern European womenswear design team at Primark from 2012 to 2016, when Primark was named as "a new force in the global rag trade" by the Economist in 2015.

Since Primark, she has also designed ranges targeted at Zara, Pull & Bear, Mango, Forever 21, River Island and BOOHOO.com, while working as a design consultant within supply.

results speak, not the employment of x,y or z

LOL! I thought you would be underwhelmed!

so's the market :-)

StockMarketWire.com
Koovs has announced a collaboration with one of the most anticipated Bollywood movies for 2017 - Jab Harry Met Sejal.

The film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Harry and Anushka Sharma as Sejal.

The movie - which has the strapline 'What you seek is seeking you' - follows Harry and Sejal as they travel across Europe and is set in Lisbon, Amsterdam, Budapest and Prague.

Koovs said it had created an exclusive capsule collection, as styling partner for the film, of selected women's and men's fashion from the movie which would be launched on KOOVS.COM to coincide with the film's release on 4 August.

It said the collaboration would also include a co-branded multi-media campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan and would culminate with a social media contest to meet and greet the stars.

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