Partial Bol.com IPO planned for 2022

Ahold Delhaize, the parent company of Albert Heijn, Etos, and Gall & Gall, among others, wants to partly list its online store bol.com. Ahold Delhaize announced this on Monday during an investors' day. The company plans to place a limited number of shares on the Amsterdam stock exchange.

Ahold Delhaize took a closer look at the strategic opportunities for bol.com last year and saw access to financing in an IPO to help the online store grow further. The company stressed that bol.com would continue to play an essential role in the strategic partnership with other Ahold Delhaize brands in the Benelux. Ahold Delhaize will maintain "significant control" over bol.com in the long term.

The IPO is expected to take place in the second half of 2022, subject to market conditions. Ahold Delhaize is counting on a turnover of 5.5 billion euros for bol.com in 2021. Revenues should double by 2025. Ahold, not yet together with the Belgian Delhaize, bought bol.com from investors Cyrte Investments and NPM Capital in 2021. The purchase price at the time was about 350 million euros.

Bol.com is expected to achieve an EBITDA result, the profit before tax and depreciation, of 150 million to 170 million euros this year. This is the first time that this result has been given for bol.com, said Ahold Delhaize CEO Frans Muller. He did not say anything about the size of the bol.com stake that is going to the stock exchange and the valuation of the subsidiary. Experts at securities house KBC would be surprised if the valuation for the whole of bol.com is more than 5 billion euros.

For the Ahold Delhaize group as a whole, the board also expects significant revenue growth in the coming years, despite "macroeconomic headwinds." Muller spoke in an explanation about the coronavirus pandemic. "The pandemic has permanently changed the sector. There are new routines; there is more online," he noted. Ahold Delhaize also wants to take steps in terms of sustainability. It intends to emit zero CO2 from its own activities by 2040, ten years earlier than the target. By 2050, Ahold Delhaize aims to achieve net-zero emissions.