Jessops develops plan for a listing

PHOTOGRAPHIC retailer Jessops, a perennial candidate to make its debut on the stock market, is making yet another attempt at a flotation.

The company, which has 262 stores, hopes to take advantage of the boom in digital cameras, a market trend which this week led to big job losses at film giant Kodak.

Analysts believe Jessops could be floated with a price tag as high as £180m, which would put it on a comparable price-earnings multiple to Dixons.

Jessops had pre-tax profits of £17m last year on sales of £287m.

The float, which is likely to make sizeable fortunes for chairman Tim Brookes and chief executive Derek Hine, comes two years after a potential move to the market was diverted by a £116m secondary management buyout when ABN Amro Capital bought the company from rival venture capital house Bridgepoint.

Bridgepoint had bought the business in 1996 for £35m but subsequent looks at floating it came to nothing.

It got closest in autumn 2000 when Jessops was valued at £100m. But the float was pulled amid cooling interest from the institutions caught up in the turmoil at the end of the technology boom.

'Flotation will help increase our profile,' said Hine. 'We aim to capitalise on the digital revolution.'