The owner of Poundland is ready for a €4 billion sale or flotation next month. Pepkor Europe has refinanced its high-interest debts and untangled itself from Steinhoff, its scandal-ridden parent company.
Poundland, which has 853 shops in the UK and Ireland, was started in Burton upon Trent in 1990 and floated in a £750 million listing in 2014. Two years later it was bought by Steinhoff, a South African retailer, for £610 million and put together with its Pepkor discount chain in Europe and Pep & Co, its burgeoning value fashion brand.
It is understood that Pepkor Europe has held meetings with legal advisers and will seek bankers next month to advise on a dual track process to explore a stock exchange listing and