Boohoo first-quarter sales rocket amid £50m share listing

The online fashion business registered rocketing revenues of £120.1m during the three months ending May 31, up 106% compared to the same period last year.

Group revenues spiked 78% on a like-for-like basis, although gross margin slipped to 54.2% from 56% a year ago.

Boohoo raked in the majority of its sales from its eponymous brand, with revenues climbing 48% to £86.4m.

Sales in the UK jumped 41% and 44% in Europe. But both the US and the rest of the world outstripped those markets, growing 97% and 50% respectively.

The Boohoo website had 5.2 million active customers during the period, representing a 24% uplift year-on-year.

PrettyLittleThing’s sales more than quadrupled from £7.6m to £30.7m, while its customer numbers rose 146% to 1.6m.

Boohoo’s third brand Nasty Gal reported revenues of £2.9m during the quarter.

Stock Exchange filing

The etailer said that following “very strong trading momentum” during the quarter, it now expects full-year group revenue to grow by around 60%, ahead of previous guidance of 50%.

It said EBITDA margins would remain in line with previous expectations at around 10%.

In a separate Stock Exchange filing, Boohoo said it was offering new placing shares by way of an “accelerated bookbuilding process”.

It successfully raised £50m from the placing of new shares.

At the same time up to 36.6m existing shares held by existing shareholders have been placed with institutional investors – including the sale of up to 11.3m shares by joint chief executive Mahmud Kamani.

Selling shareholders have appointed Zeus Capital and Jefferies to procure purchasers for up to 36.6m existing shares at the same price as the new shares.

Boohoo said the capital would help construct a new 600,000 sq ft “automated super-site”, which would provide it with more than £1.5bn of net sales capacity.

The land acquisition of the new site, plus construction costs, are expected are total £150m over the three years to 2020.

Kamani and joint boss Carol Kane said in a joint statement: “Across the group, the combination of broadening product ranges, strong brand image, competitive prices and good customer service continues to drive sales momentum.”

“The inclusion of our new brands is proving the potential of our multi-brand strategy in delivering strong group revenue growth.”