JD Sports founders set to float Footasylum
JD Sports founders John Wardle and David Makin are planning to float the Footasylum chain of premium fashion and footwear stores, it has been reported.
According to Sky News the IPO will be announced later this month and news of the float comes two months after initial speculation that the pair intended to sell their stakes in the business, which they founded in 2005. Earlier that same year the pair sold JD Sports, which they had founded in 1981 when Makin was just 16, netting £45m in the process.
The business is expected to be valued at £150m before any new money is raised through the listing and Wardle, who is also a former chairman of Manchester City football club, would remain on its board. Rochdale-based Footasylum is now run by Makin’s daughter Clare Nesbitt, and Makin's three children hold 90% of its shares, while he and Wardle hold 10%.
Footasylum now operates around 60 stores across the UK, as well as an online store, selling sports and streetwear brands such as Vans, Adidas, Nike, EA7, Boss and Ellesse. It recently opened a new 4,992 sq ft store store at the centre:mk shopping destination in Milton Keynes.
JD Sports is now one of the UK's most successful retailers. This morning it was revealed to be the UK's fourth fastest growing retailer by percentage growth and the second by absolute growth, having grown by £558m last year, in a new report released by OC&C Strategy Consultants and Financo.
