British Retailer Pets At Home Eyes $459m London Flotation

Pets At Home, Britain's biggest pet products retailer with 369 stores, became the latest UK retailer to reveal plans to float on the stock exchange.

Pets At Home proposes to raise about £275m ($459, €334m) through an initial public offering that could value the firm at about £1.5bn, according to a 19 February company statement.

The firm plans to offload at least 25% of its stock in the planned listing, on the main board of the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

When it lists, the company expects to have a net debt of £275m.

In the run up to the IPO, Pets At Home bolstered its board, led by chairman Tony DeNunzio, by appointing four independent nonexecutive directors. A fifth appointment is possible before admission.

Pets At Home also operates 246 vet surgeries and 116 in-store pet grooming salons.

Company staff could profit from an expected windfall of up to £120m when the firm lists itself. Nearly 500 employees bought into the business when private-equity giant KKR bought it from Bridgepoint for £995m in 2010.

Nick Wood, chief executive of Pets At Home, said in the statement: "Pets at Home comes to the market with a clear leadership position in the UK pet care market and with a mission to be the best pet shop in the world."

The IPO announcement comes a day after one of Britain's biggest discount retailers Poundland Group said it was eyeing a March flotation on the LSE to raise £750m.

Poundland revealed on 18 February that it has made a number of high level non-executive director appointments as it lays the groundwork to launch its major IPO.

Poundland has snapped up the former Carpetright chief executive Darren Shapland as well as the former CEO of Travelodge Grant Hearn.

The group also added president and chief customer officer at Mondelēz International, formerly known as Kraft Foods, Trevor Bond and group HR director for Merlin Entertainments, Tea Colaianni to its board.

More than $8.3bn worth of European IPOs are being marketed, alongside in excess of $3.2bn of flotations that have priced since the beginning of the year, according to Dealogic.