Fashion site Zalando’s €5 billion share float

ASOS’s German rival is to list in Frankfurt to raise more than €500 million (£398 million) to fund further expansion for Europe’s biggest online fashion group.

Berlin-based Zalando plans to float up to 11% of the business, valuing the company at around €5 billion.

The group sells 1500 brands to shoppers across 15 countries. It made its first quarterly profit in July when second-quarter revenues jumped 20% to €546 million. Zalando is on track to reach €2 billion in revenue by the end of the year.

News of the float follows a raft of e-commerce listings including German venture-capital firm Rocket Internet, which helped launch Zalando, while China’s Alibaba should list this month.

Zalando targets young shoppers and is in direct competition with ASOS, which has seen its shares fall 60% this year following two profit warnings which revealed growth had slowed.