Moonpig, the online greetings retailer debuted on the London Stock Exchange today (LSE) with a £1.2 billion valuation, marking the second biggest UK listing of year after Dr Martens’ £4 billion floatation last week.

The online greetings retailer raised gross proceeds of £20 million by placing £491.2 million shares on the market – around 41 per cent of the group's total value.

The shares were initially valued at 350p each, but later rose as high as 450p.

Unconditional trading will begin on February 5 at 8am, while conditional trading began at 8am today.

The retailer reported a 44 per cent year-on-year increase in underlying earnings, moving from £44.4 million to £173.1 million in sales during the year counted to April 30, as traditional high-street businesses flounder.

The news comes as the company, which boasts 12.2 million customers and sends 46 million cards a year, seeks to expand further into the £24 billion cards and gifts market across the UK, Netherlands and Ireland while asserting itself as a technology business.

Moonpig also said around 10 per cent of card purchases were made online in 2019, which is forecast to double to 20 per cent by 2021.

Deliveroo is also reported to be targeting an IPO and was recently valued at £5.1 billion after its latest funding round.

Nickyl Raithatha, chief executive of Moonpig Group, said: “Listing on the London Stock Exchange is an incredibly special milestone and will provide new opportunities for the business.

“As the leaders of a market undergoing an accelerating shift to online, now is the perfect time for us to bring the company to the public market and we are excited about Moonpig’s prospects for the future.”

"The announcement today that Moonpig has listed on the London Stock Exchange is yet another sign that we are entering a golden year for UK tech,” said Stephen Kelly, Chair of Tech Nation. “The IPO of a homegrown company demonstrates both the strength of talent in the UK and the appeal of the LSE as a location for companies looking to IPO.”

He added: “With a valuation of £1.2bn, Moonpig joins the UK’s growing cohort of tech unicorns, with seven created in 2020 alone. The UK now has more than twice as many unicorns as Germany and France. We can expect more announcements like this from UK companies this year as we see UK Tech come into its own, which has particular importance in a post-Brexit world.”

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