Rumours Fly as Booktopia Looks to Float

Booktopia is having a ripper of a month. The leading online book retailer is now one of the multitudes of retailers rumoured to float on the ASX.

According to AFR, there are no listed investors alongside the online retailer, but it’s expected that Booktopia will pitch for funds as the biggest online book retailer in Australia.

Booktopia currently dispatches 3.3 million parcels annually, with the peak of the retail calendar seeing them push out up to 41,800 products a day.

Booktopia is expected to hit revenue of $150.6 million in FY20, according to the research firm IBISWorld.

According to the accounts lodged with its corporate regulator, Booktopia posted $129.1 million in revenue and an $824,000 after-tax profit in FY19.

In February 2020, Booktopia secured a $20 million capital raise via a mix of debt and equity from an association of private backers. This comes after the backtracking of a $10 million crowdfunding raise.

E-commerce retailers have been experiencing rapid growth amid the pandemic, with the likes of Adore Beauty and Vinomofo also rumoured to prepare for IPO.

This isn’t the first time rumours began circulating around the possibility of Booktopia floating on ASX. In 2016, the retailer hired investment bank Investec to help it float during the second half of the calendar year of 2016.

This comes as the leading e-commerce name announced its partnership with Zebra Technologies to improves its WMS. The partnership includes the deployment of Zebra’s TC8000 Touch Mobile computers, which are intended to increase productivity across the warehouse.

“With work shifts stretching up to four consecutive hours per shift, our front-line workers need mobile computers with a dependable battery life and scanning accuracy,” said Tim Rimington, the Infrastructure Manager at Booktopia.

Booktopia’s previous devices were powered by Windows CE mobile technology. With this technology, the retailer was ‘exposed to potential data security risks’ due to the lack of availability for extended support of Windows Embedded and Mobile OS. The switch to the Android-powered Zebra mobile computers has helped to ‘mitigate these risks’.

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