A leading mattress and sofa ecommerce retailer has made a successful debut on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Shares in The Koala Company were changing hands at $3.70 on Tuesday afternoon, up 8.8 per cent from their $3.40 price they were sold at during an initial public offering that raised $68.1 million.
"Today is a proud day for Koala as we begin our journey as a publicly listed company," company co-founder and CEO Dany Milham said in a statement.
"It reflects the hard work and passion of our incredible team over the past decade and the support of our customers, partners and shareholders who have believed in our vision from the start."
The company was founded by childhood friends Mr Milham and Mitch Taylor in Byron Bay in 2015 with just a single mattress product they sold direct to consumers via cheeky and irreverent social media ads.
Koala now sells a range of sofas, sofa beds, outdoor furniture, bed bases, bedside tables and mattresses in Australia, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.
"While listing our business is incredibly exciting, when Mitch and I founded Koala over a decade ago we didn't do it with this goal in mind," Mr Milham said.
"We set out to build a better kind of furniture company focused on design, sustainability and to provide long-term value to the customer. That goal remains unchanged."
Koala said while many of its competitors primarily sell "white label" products, all of its furniture is designed in-house by a team of 31 employees.
At a $3.70 share price, Koala has a market cap of $332 million.
The company is forecasting it will make $332 million in revenue in 2025/26, up 20 per cent from a year ago.
It predicts earnings will more than double to $24.8 million.
"Our priorities are on strengthening our core categories, expanding internationally, and delivering disciplined and sustainable long-term returns," Mr Milham said.
Mr Milham has retained a 20.7 per cent stake in the company and Mr Taylor a 16.3 per cent stake, worth about $66 million and $54 million, respectively.
Sydney-based boutique fund Perennial Partners, which invested in Koala in 2020, holds a 22.7 per cent stake.
Chairman Michael Gordon said it wasn't lost on the team that there weren't too many companies listing around the world currently, given the global uncertainty, and they were grateful from the support shown by new and existing investors.