Time Out, the lifestyle and listing magazine turned international digital media business, is planning a stock market flotation later this year.
Oakley Capital, which acquired a controlling stake in Tony Elliott’s 48-year-old Time Out in 2010, intends to float the company on London’s AIM market in June.
Oakley has invested heavily in growing the loss-making business internationally, including taking its print magazine free in London, New York and Chicago, investing in digital and more recently launching a highly-successful food market in Lisbon.
The business, in which founder Elliott still owns 10%, claims a global reach of 116 million monthly users across print and digital platforms, has re-engineered its model to derive about 50% of its £70m in annual revenues from digital sources including e-commerce and advertising.
In a statement to the stock market on Friday, Oakley, which controls 76% of Time Out, said it has “commenced a process of review of the investment in Time Out Group which may or may not lead to the partial sale of the group”.
Assuming the stock market flotation is successful, Peter Dubens, the founder of Oakley Capital, is expected to take the role of non-executive chairman.
Julio Bruno, the former senior TripAdvisor executive hired to run Time Out last October, would take the role of chief executive.
Time Out is aiming to float the company with a valuation of more than £200m, according to Sky News, which first broke news of the plans on Friday.
The company is expecting to raise about £80m selling shares to external investors with the proceeds used to re-invest into areas including its mobile e-commerce platform and first-ever marketing campaigns.
Time Out is hoping to ape some of the success of digital media and recommendation businesses such as TripAdvisor, which listed on the stock market when it was running at a loss and has since become a major global force.
In December, Time Out moved to cut about 10% of its global workforce, 40 of 400, as part of a strategic refocus on digital operations.
