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LONDON (Alliance News) - Online fashion retailer Boohoo.com, the latest UK retailer to firm up its initial public offering, has said it plans to raise GBP300 million in the AIM listing, giving it a higher-then-expected initial market capitalisation of GBP560 million.

The company said it has successfully priced the IPO and placing of 600 million shares at 50 pence each, with dealings expected to start March 14.

The flotation had previously been expected to give the company a valuation in the region of GBP500 million, and is the latest retailer valuation to come in ahead of earlier estimates amid fears that the IPO market is overheating.

When AO World listed late last month it had an initial market capitalisation of GBP1.2 billion, up from earlier estimates of GBP1 billion, while Pets at Home, which floats next week, has an estimated initial valuation of GBP1.3 billion. Still demand for AO shares was strong, and the shares are now trading at 357.25 pence, well above the listing price of 285 pence, giving it a current market capitalisation of GBP1.5 billion.

Boohoo.com joins a growing list of retailers that have floated this year. As well as AO World and Pets at Home, convenience store retailer McColl's Retail Group has also listed on the main market, while discount retailer Poundland intends to list on it in coming months.

Media have also reported that a host of other retail businesses are set to float sometime this year, including discount retailer B&M, department store operator House of Fraser, phones retailer Phones4U, and fashion retailer Fat Face.

As reported by Alliance News, Boohoo.com brought forward its intention to float to early- to mid-March, from late March to early April previously.

China has allowed its first ever bond default after solar panel maker Chaori Solar failed to pay investors some CNY90 million, or USD15 million, in interest. Shanghai-based Chaori Solar Energy Science and Technology Co. said it was still trying to raise money from sales of overseas assets to pay the interest, which was due today. Analysts see the government's decision not to help meet payments totalling CNY89.8 million as a landmark in the ruling Communist Party's liberalization of China's financial markets.

In political news, the Crimean parliament speaker said the rest of Ukraine should follow the Black Sea region in seceding to Russia, a day after the US called a referendum on the move illegitimate and Moscow and the West remained far apart on how to de-escalate tensions.

"We Crimeans will do everything that not only Crimea will be reunified with Russia, but the whole of Ukraine," Vladimir Konstantinov was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency. He said the new government in Kiev had seized power illegally, echoing the views of Russia's top leadership. "I hope we can help fostering a new leader in Ukraine," he continued.

Konstantinov was speaking in Moscow after talks with Russian lawmakers, a day after Crimea's parliament voted to hold a referendum on March 16 about joining Russia.

The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament said that Moscow will accept Crimea if a majority backs the referendum on secession from Ukraine. Valentina Matvienko said the vote was in line with international practice, comparing it to the planned independence referendum in Scotland. "They will get the same rights as all other Russian regions," she said.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has assailed western support for the new Ukrainian government as a "triumph of double standards". "What we see in Ukraine now that is a triumph of lawlessness, of cynicism and of the collapse of international law," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a TV interview, excerpts of which were carried by Russian news agencies.

US President Barack Obama has suggested direct talks between the governments of Ukraine and Russia as a way to diplomatically resolve the crisis on Ukraine. Concurrently, the US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a bill allowing the Obama administration to provide for the costs of loan guarantees for Ukraine. President Obama has already pledged 1 billion dollars in energy aid in the form of loan guarantees to protect the most vulnerable Ukrainians from lower energy subsidies.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said the disclosures made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden will cost the US military billions of dollars to rectify.

Dempsey told a congressional committee that "the vast majority" of the thousands of documents taken by Snowden were not related to domestic surveillance, but were concerned with military operations, capabilities, tactics and procedures. He said a task force, which is currently at work, would take about two years to ascertain what Snowden took, what it could be used for and how to best mitigate the effects.

A week after the collapse of the Tokyo-based Mt Gox, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet said the world's most well-known form of virtual money, is not a currency, but would be taxable. Tokyo defined bitcoin as a product that is not handled by banks and securities houses. It also added that consumption tax would be levied on purchases of the virtual currency and income tax would be imposed on profits from its sale.

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FTSE 100: Down 0.25% at 6,771.40
FTSE 250: Down 0.18% at 16,640.97
AIM ALL-SHARE: Down 0.01% at 897.18
GBP-USD: 1.6765
EUR-USD: 1.3905
GOLD: USD1,349.80 an ounce
OIL (Brent): USD108.21 a barrel

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KEY UK CORPORATE NEWS:

FTSE 100: BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley in 2013 was paid more than triple the amount he was paid in 2012, despite continuing legal threats over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

FTSE 250: Alliance Trust has warned that the looming Scottish independence referendum is creating uncertainty for the business and it has begun to take action to reduce it, as it reported a strong set of 2013 results, buoyed by good returns from its equity portfolio.

AIM: Independent Oil & Gas is trading higher after the company said it has received approval to get a USD50 million reserve-based debt facility from a "substantial" US lender, money it needs to develop its Blythe field in the North Sea. Verdes Management is also up after the institutional shareholder that invested GBP750,000 into Verdes, which was rescued earlier this week by Coms Chief Executive David Breith, was identified as Helium Rising Stars Fund, a hedge fund registered in the Cayman Islands. Iofina shares are trading higher after it extended the redemption date of its USD15 million convertible bond with Stena Investment Sàrl by two years to May 15, 2017, while the coupon on the bond was reduced to 6.0% a year, from 6.5%. Redhall Group is up after the group said it intends to raise GBP7.5 million before expenses through a placing of 19.2 million shares at 39 pence each with new and existing institutional investors, money it will use to recapitalise its balance sheet and for general working capital. Verona Pharma is down after the company said it intends to raise up to GBP14 million before expenses in a share placing, subscription, and open offer, money it will use to fund further development of its RPL554 drug. Sula Iron & Gold is also down after it said that losses widened in 2013 and that it has raised a further GBP2.1 million in a new placing.

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AFTERNOON WATCHLIST:

13:30 US Nonfarm Payrolls
13:30 US Trade Balance
13:30 US Unemployment Rate
17:00 US Fed's William Dudley speech
20:00 US Consumer Credit Change

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Monday's Key UK Corporate Events

Clarkson Full Year Results
Goals Soccer Centres Full Year Results
HgCapital Trust Full Year Results

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Saturday's Key UK Corporate Events

02:00 China Trade Balance

Sunday's Key UK Corporate Events

01:30 China Consumer Price Index
01:30 China Producer Price Index
23:50 Japan Bank lending
23:50 Japan Current Account
23:50 Japan Gross Domestic Product

Monday's Key Economic Events

All Day EU Eurogroup meeting
06:00 Japan Machine Tool Orders
07:45 France Industrial Output

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By Alice Attwood; aliceattwood@alliancenews.com; @AliceAtAlliance

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