By Silke Koltrowitz and Oliver Hirt
ZURICH, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Swiss online marketplace Chronext wants to issue new shares worth around 250 million Swiss francs and also place existing shares from investors in an initial public offering (IPO) at Swiss stock exchange SIX, the company said on Friday.
“The IPO is targeted to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to market conditions,” the company said in a statement.
Chronext, which sells new and second-hand luxury watches online, wants to use half of the proceeds for acquisitions and invest the rest in the existing business, Chief Executive Philipp Man told Reuters in an interview.
The market for second-hand luxury watches, in particular for popular brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, is booming also for Chronext’s rivals WatchBox, Richemont-owned CFR.S Watchfinder, Ebay EBAY.O and Chrono24.
Reuters reported in May that Chrono24 was also mulling an IPO. It recently secured funding from the Arnault family that controls LVMHLVMH.PA.
WatchBox took a majority stake in independent watch brand De Bethune last week.
Chronext’s Man said the company wanted to further consolidate its position in Europe and enter the Asian and the U.S. market. “These markets are highly fragmented, we see acquisition targets there,” he said.
Founded in 2013, Chronext generated sales of more than 100 million euros last year. It said it was targeting revenue growth of about 40% for 2021 after increasing sales by 20.3% in the first half and achieving a compound annual growth rate of 47% since 2018.
It is also targeting profitability on EBITDA level in the mid term, Man said.
Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Jon Cox said he estimated the secondary market was worth $20 billion and growing faster than the primary market.
He said he expected the market for second-hand luxury watches to keep growing fast and reach a similar volume online to the market for new watches.
Jefferies and UBS are global coordinators for the IPO, while Bank of America and Deutsche Bank act as bookrunners.
(Reporting by Oliver Hirt and Silke Koltrowitz; editing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi)
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