Coolblue to go public in October

Coolblue is preparing for its IPO. This month the e-commerce player goes to the stock exchange in Amsterdam. The company wants to raise an amount of 150 million euros.

Fuel for expansion

After the delayed plans this spring, Coolblue is now going public after all. The company announces that it will be listed on Euronext Amsterdam in October. The electronics retailer is issuing new shares amounting to 150 million euros. Existing shareholders are also selling parts of their shares. These include CEO Pieter Zwart, CFO Daphne Smit, investment group HAL, who held half of the shares, and the employees of Coolblue, who recently received a limited number of shares. Coolblue aims for 20 to 30 per cent of all shares to be floated on the stock exchange after the IPO.

With the proceeds, the company wants to clean up the accounts after “considerable investments in 2020 and 2021”, but it also wants to enable additional growth. There are concrete expansion plans in Germany, but Coolblue also wants to profile itself further as a supplier of home offices and sees a lot of potential in new business propositions. For example, the Dutch company recently launched Home&Go, a service for green electricity and mobility. 

CEO Pieter Zwart also says he wants to open more stores in the Netherlands and Belgium and further automate the warehouses. The founder is also keen on acquisitions or more “investments in IT and technology”. Therefore, investors should not expect dividends in the medium term: the IPO is really a means of growth. The company even hints that it may target other European countries in the future, as its model is “highly replicable”.