Ascential knows all about trends: it owns the top fashion forecasting service WGSN. It may spin off its US digital commerce operation in New York to exploit higher transatlantic valuations. That would be a small blow to plans to make London a cool venue for tech stocks championed by celebrity slider wearer Rishi Sunak, the UK’s embattled chancellor.
There were already signs the company was frustrated with its valuation. Boss Duncan Painter last month told investors that private equity groups had valued digital commerce businesses such as Stackline and Syndigo at an average of 13 times revenues. Applying the same multiple to the Ascential digital commerce unit would exceed the £1.6bn enterprise value of the group.
Investors were also urged to read across from Informa’s recent £1.9bn sale of its medical data business when valuing the WGSN product design division. If the unit was also valued at 31 times 2021 ebitda, it would be worth more than £1.2bn.