Smartphones-to-computers recycler and reseller MusicMagpie is swooping towards an AIM flotation that will value the rapidly growing ‘re-commerce’ business at £208 million as London’s IPO market boom continues.
A specialist online reseller of used consumer technology such as smartphones, tablets and games consoles, MusicMagpie’s ‘comfortably oversubscribed’ placing has raised £15 million of fresh funds for the company with selling shareholders taking £95 million off the table.
At the 193p placing price, the company will flutter onto the junior exchange next week (22 April) with a market valuation of £208 million.
HELPING CONSUMERS DECLUTTR
Launched in 2007, the group trades as musicMagpie in the UK and Decluttr in the US and has a simple core business model; ‘to provide consumers with a smart, trusted and sustainable way to buy, rent and sell refurbished consumer technology and physical media products’.
MusicMagpie says the market for pre-owned consumer technology and physical media is worth approximately £9 billion in the UK and US with growth supported by a number of positive tailwinds.
These include increasing consumer acceptance of circular economy models, inflating prices for certain consumer technology products, as well as slower rates of innovation and the decoupling of handsets from carrier contracts.
Run by CEO and co-founder Steve Oliver (pictured below), MusicMagpie claims to recycle 95% of the products it acquires and uses parts from the remaining 5% to refurbish other items.
It expects to qualify for the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) Green Economy Mark when it arrives on the stock market. This recognises companies that derive 50% or more of their total annual revenue from products and services that contribute to the global ‘Green Economy’.
MusicMagpie’s sales increased from roughly £115.5 million in the year to November 2018 to about £153.4 million in the year to November 2020, a compound annual growth rate of about 15.2%.
The IPO proceeds will be used to repay existing debt facilities and fund the expansion of MusicMagpie’s smartphone rental proposition.
SIGNIFICANT GROWTH POTENTIAL
Oliver is ‘thrilled that MusicMagpie’s circular economy model has resonated so strongly with investors’ and expressed delight over receiving ‘such a high level of demand’ for the placing.
‘Given the ongoing move to tackle the growing problem of e-waste and the fact that consumer attitudes towards buying refurbished consumer technology products are rapidly changing, we believe that there is significant potential for MusicMagpie’s future growth prospects,’ he enthused.
‘In the UK alone, we estimate that people are sitting on around £16.5 billion worth of technology that they no longer use, and that only a small percentage of consumer technology items are currently recycled.’
