The founders of LadBible Group are set to be worth millions as the Manchester-based media group plans to float on the UK stock market with a valuation of around £360m before Christmas.
The company, which has rebranded as LBG Media Plc, has announced its intention to float in a stock market filing and is expected to sell about a quarter of its shares, worth around £80m, and raise an additional £30m from new shares.
Solly Solomou, the chief executive, and Arian Kalantari, the chief operating officer, have run LadBible since 2012 and increased revenues and profits on the strength of the online and social media advertising boom.
Solomou, who turns 31 this month, is the top shareholder and Kalantari, 30, also has a significant stake in the youth-focused publisher, which won media brand of the year at ±±¾©Èü³µpk10’s Media Week Awards in October 2021.
Accounts for 2020 show the group increased revenues by 4% to £30.2m and made earnings before exceptional items (Ebitda) of £5.3m and it is understood the business has grown rapidly this year – with earnings set to triple to £15m.
Turnover was split almost equally between direct revenues (47%) and indirect revenues (49%) last year.
Direct, including content marketing and direct display, rose 16%. Indirect, including social video, web advertising and content recommendation, also grew 3%. A small fraction came from licensing, affiliates, programming and social consultancy, which dropped during the pandemic.
LadBible's short-form digital content has won a large, global audience at a time when sales of print magazines have declined dramatically and the digital ad market has become dominated by the US tech giants.
Mahmud Kamani, co-founder of Boohoo, the online fashion retailer, was an early backer and also has a shareholding. Carol Kane, another co-founder of Boohoo, who runs its marketing, is set to become a non-executive director of LBG Media.
Shares are set to begin trading on 15 December.
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