Online bookshop Booktopia gains over 20 per cent at its $43.1m IPO

The IPO of online book store Booktopia (ASX:BKG) has completed this morning as shares commenced trading and gained over 20 per cent.

The company was founded in 2004 and has grown to be the largest Australian-owned online book retailer by market share shipping on average 25,000 items per business day.

Booktopia’s IPO raised $43.1 million at $2.30 per share. When trading began at 11am (AEDT), Booktopia shares climbed over 20 per cent to $2.80.

Booktopia (ASX:BKG) share price chart

Expecting its “biggest Christmas ever”

Booktopia is the latest ecommerce stock to IPO on the ASX, doing so in light of a spectacular year for the sector.

COVID-19-induced shutdowns of brick and mortar stores led to consumers moving online.

Several ASX stocks have surged ranging from generalist stocks like Kogan (ASX:KGN) and Harris Technology (ASX:HT8) to niche retailers such as Temple & Webster (ASX:TPW).

Another was recently listed company MyDeal (ASX:MYD) which specialises in homewares. This company also saw an impressive debut back in October.

But the broader ecommerce sector, Booktopia included, is bracing for a big Christmas trading season which began last week with Black Friday and will culminate with Boxing Day.

Australia’s book sector is a significant part of this because Australians spend $2.5 billion on books in FY20 and 36 per cent were bought online.

Today on its IPO Booktopia told shareholders it had finished an upgrade of its distribution centre. The upgrade doubles its outbound potential capacity – just at the right time.

“We are expecting our biggest Christmas ever and with the ability to process up to 60,000 sales a day, we will be able to satisfy more customers,” said CEO Tony Nash.

Post-Christmas, Booktopia will commence a trial of autonomous robots.

It said these could increase operational efficiency four-fold and increase storage capacity by 80 per cent.