For Immediate Release
7 March 2014

boohoo.com plc
("boohoo" or the "Company")

Announcement of Placing details and Admission to AIM

Successful Placing to raise £300 million
Market capitalisation of £560 million at Placing Price
Trading starts 14 March 2014 on AIM

boohoo, one of the UK's largest pure-play online, own brand fashion retailers, today announces the successful pricing of its initial public offering ("the IPO") and the placing ("the Placing") of 600 million ordinary shares at 50p per share. It is expected that dealings will commence on AIM at 8.00 a.m. on 14 March 2014.

The Company designs, sources, markets and sells the latest on-trend fashions through the www.boohoo.com website to a core market of 16-24 year old consumers. boohoo is a well-established brand in the UK, Ireland and Australia and currently sells its products into over 100 countries.

boohoo is raising gross proceeds of approximately £300 million, £50 million of which will be used to accelerate its expansion and enhance its working capital base. A proportion of the money raised will be used as part of a multi-stage development plan to grow the Company's distribution facilities and repay the outstanding mortgage on its Burnley warehouse, in addition to funding the infrastructure and IT systems to support future international growth. Approximately £240 million will be used to repay the Convertible Loan notes held by the Company's existing shareholders. Following Admission the Board and the Kamani family will hold approximately 44% of the Company's enlarged share capital. On Admission, the Company is expected to have net cash of approximately £50 million.

The Company is expected to join AIM on 14 March 2014 with a market capitalisation at the Placing Price of approximately £560 million.

The Ordinary Shares will trade under the ticker "BOO" and the ISIN number is: JE00BG6L7297. Zeus Capital is acting as NOMAD and Sole Broker to the Company.

Company highlights

· A strong brand identity and competitive position
o Founded in 2006, boohoo has grown rapidly, developing a brand identity and an international online proposition, and now has over 2.3 million active customers, with approximately 140,000 new customers registering on the website per month
o High fashion, high quality and low price products
o Limited number of direct competitors, focused on a similar age group and price point

· Agile supply chain facilitated by a unique 'Trial and Repeat' model
o Trends transferred from catwalk to closet in as little as six weeks
o Low stock cover of just seven to eight weeks

· A successful track record of revenue generation and profit growth
o For the ten months to December 2013, sales increased by 70% to £91.9m and adjusted EBITDA grew 188% to £10.1m (versus £54.1m and £3.5m respectively for the same period in the prior year)
o Exclusively own brand offering, generating gross margins of over 60 per cent

· A highly experienced management team
o Founded by Joint Chief Executives, Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, who together have a long history of supplying fashionable clothing, accessories and shoes to high street retailers

· Demonstrated international growth
o Currently operates an English language website for all sales in the UK and globally and a local French language website launched in October 2013
o 37% of sales were international for the ten months to December 2013, growing from £18m to £34m

· A compelling growth market
o The global apparel retail market has grown at an average annual growth rate of 2.8% per annum since 2008 and is expected to be worth £987 billion by 2017. Online retail sales are forecast to take 23.5% of total fashion retail sales by 2016 in the UK
o Expansion of the current product range, will allow boohoo to broaden its appeal, supported by engagement through interactive content and marketing
o The Directors believe that boohoo's exciting growth prospects are underpinned by forecast growth in both the domestic and international online fashion retail markets, the Company's highly efficient sourcing model and a robust infrastructure development plan

Commenting on the announcement, Mahmud Kamani, Joint Chief Executive of boohoo, said:

"We are delighted to announce that our initial public offering has been successful. The placing and Admission to AIM marks a significant step for boohoo as we invest in this exciting growth opportunity underpinned by the rapidly growing online retail market.

We would like to welcome our new shareholders to the Company and look forward to continuing to develop our business providing market leading customer service for on-trend, value led fashion clothing and accessories as a publicly quoted company."

Carol Kane, Joint Chief Executive of boohoo, said:

"boohoo is a lifestyle driven, online destination and the 'go to' for the latest fashion trends at affordable prices. We are confident that our competitive position and growing customer base means that we are well placed to capitalise on the fast growing online fashion retail market. Our success to date, coupled with our exciting expansion plans, makes this an ideal time to bring the Company to AIM."




Enquiries:

boohoo.com plc
Mahmud Kamani, Joint Chief Executive
Carol Kane, Joint Chief Executive
Neil Catto, Chief Financial Officer

c/o Buchanan +44 (0)20 7466 5000
Buchanan - Financial PR adviser
Richard Oldworth
Helen Chan
Gabriella Clinkard

This is the IPO iv'e been interested in myself GF ...

Yep reckon a lot will be going for the Grey market.

If you look on thread.... Share Tips For 2014.....theirs quite a bit more info and interest in this one there. Looks like a few are interested.

Its all about how much you can get though.

If its rationed no chance Ill pass it up and probably buy when market gets going.

I saw your info on the other thread .Also Dc posted something way back about Koovos floating ,ex asos folk running that too.

Poundland might be one to go for aswel.

IG have got them pets at home and candy crush on grey market at the moment.

Is the float price a pound ??

LOL he he, good one.

Actualy that would have been a sound PR exercise and probably would have attracted a lot of media.

I know the CFO. Used to work alongside of him for a private accountancy firm.

GF i'd be a bit scared of buying at a pound ,in case they never went up :)) .

You can't get a refund either, one has to exchange it for something else!!!!! HA!

The Boohoo float is through Zeus Capital. I rang them in Manchester and all the shares are placed. Typical! So who will be best to deal with on the grey market??

IG Index I reckon.

Goog jibes above you 2 lol. Exchange my pound poundland shares for a packet of Bic razors.

Mind I dont want a shed full.

Couple of bearish items today on this IPO.

I know investors always like to hear the good things but me being me I have to also make you aware of the bad (bearish ) things.

I had this report in my e-mail this morning..........

【UK Stocks 】 Boohoo Performs Poorly for Menswear Keywords
Inbox
x

EagleAlpha.com system@eaglealpha.com
7 Mar (1 day ago)

to me
Insight_header
Boohoo Performs Poorly for Menswear Keywords
UK Stocks

Our research shows that Boohoo performed well for womenswear keywords and for certain generic keywords but the website's ranking for menswear was notably poor. The keywords analysed were based on the product ranges on the Boohoo and Asos websites. There is a clear opportunity for Boohoo to improve its menswear ranking as its average ranking for 13 search phrases is 39th position. Asos' ranking across the 3 categories was extremely impressive and outperformed Boohoo for the majority of keywords.

Boohoo.com is set to list on Friday, March 14, according to the Financial Times. The online retailer will have a market capitalization of £560m. Boohoo is selling 55% of the business and the Kamani family will be left with 44% after collecting £240m.

The German search engine optimisation (SEO) tool Sistrix was used for the below organic search analysis. In total, Boohoo appears in the top 10 for 2,010 search phrases but this pales in comparison to Asos which has 9,554 top 10 rankings. According to Sistrix there are 4,736 keywords associated with Boohoo and 23,876 with Asos. Organic search results remain the most important as 77% of search users choose organic over paid listing when searching. Organic results are based on the Google search algorithms as opposed to results that are returned based on paid advertising.




Generic Keywords

It is striking that Boohoo ranks number one for the keyword "clothes" which is a high volume keyword. However, its search ranking is much more erratic than Asos with under-performance in keywords such as shirts, jackets and jeans.




Womeswear

An econsultancy report in 2012 found that almost two-thirds of generic womenswear search phrases are dominated by three phrases: "womens clothing", "womens clothes" and "ladies fashion". The table below illustrates that Asos performs extremely well for the three crucial phrases. There is also considerable scope for improvement for Boohoo with the keywords, boots, wellies, wallets and purses.


Menswear

There is no comparison between Boohoo's and Asos' ranking for menswear keywords. Boohoo is only ranked in the top 10 for two phrases while Asos is in the top 10 for all keywords. There is a clear opportunity for Boohoo to improve its menswear ranking as its average ranking for 13 search phrases is 39th position.


Why Google Ranking in the Top 10 is so Important

According to a study from Optify the top three organic search positions receive on average 58.4% of all user's clicks.


Keyword Opportunities

Sistrix has identified the below keywords as opportunities for the respective websites to improve rankings.





Recent Improvements in Boohoo's Rankings

SIstrix data shows that Boohoo has dramatically improved its ranking for key words "Skirt", "Party dresses UK" and " High heels."

Boohoo historical ranking for "Skirt"


Boohoo historical ranking for "Party dresses UK"


Boohoo historical ranking for "High heels"




Google Trends

The below Google trends chart shows that Asos (in red) has much stronger "interest over time" compared to Boohoo (in blue). This could be seen as a growth opportunity for Boohoo.............................ends


If you go to the site EagleAlpha.com system@eaglealpha.com

you will be able to see the charts they refer to above at the end of the piece.

Its free to sign up.

PLUS.... into days Daily Mail (saturday) its DOGBERRY of the day and as a go at director Carol Kane joint CEO.

Can anybody down load it ?im on the lap top fishing and cant do this with this clapped out article.

Does put ????????? marks in ones head.

I do know folk dont like to hear negative comment but I never shy from that, give it as it as I see it is my moral.

Ask Chris Carson on the footbal thread re- Rooney and my thoughts on him even tho I am a UTD fan.

Im re-thinking this through and remember this..........

Profits, like sausages....are esteemed most by those who know least about what goes into them. Goldfinger 8/03/2014.

gf, I can't find the article in todays Daily Mail - sorry. Like you I'm interested in this flotation, but keeping an open mind on it right now. I will probably wait to see how much the MMs mark it up at the start of trade on Friday.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2575523/Boohoo-com-latest-retailer-raise-cash-London-stock-market-float-capital-raising-values-firm-560m.html

Lest ye forget....


http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/may/16/media.business

Yep cheers Guys for the links.

Im now still undecided.

We all want to make money but what will the opening SP be.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

imo, avoid ..... family controlled and that can't be good .... looks very much like a way for the family to line its pockets with mink and fill with much gold

The share offer is being used to fund overseas growth. Can see the sp spiking first day, like many recent IPO's. Perhaps it may be a while for enthusiasm for the stock to be justified by the price.
Its said they should do well abroad. I will wait for some update news. Yes they are following Asos steps, but nothing like Asos in profits or size, with a recent £10m profit. I will take a gamble on the sp rapidly spiking but will also fall before news to gain a better entry point.

I'm going to wait to see what the 8am opening offer price is on Friday before making a decision. I agree with dreamcatcher that the sp will spike rapidly early on Friday morning, the question is how long the spike will be sustained and how far it will go.