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AS Watson, the Hong Kong-based owner of Superdrug, is shrugging off market volatility and geopolitical turmoil to push ahead with plans for a $30bn dual stock market listing in the second half of this year.
The group, owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings, is hoping to raise about $2bn through publicly listing its shares in both London and Hong Kong before the end of 2026, according to three people familiar with the situation.
AS Watson, which traces its history back to a 19th-century pharmacist’s hut in Hong Kong, is already working with advisers at Goldman Sachs, UBS and Latham & Watkins on the plans, which the people cautioned would be subject to market conditions.
A decision on whether London or Hong Kong will be the primary venue is still being debated, one person familiar said.
While the war in the Middle East has roiled markets, the group is hoping to ride a wave of renewed investor appetite for IPOs, prompted by blockbuster listing plans revealed by SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI.
An IPO by AS Watson — even a dual listing — would be a fillip to London’s equity markets, which have suffered recently from a dearth of public offerings. A number of planned London listings, including those of Visma and Love Holidays, have been pushed back this year as a result of market volatility first caused by a global software sell-off and then the Iran war.
Malina Ngai, group chief executive of AS Watson, is currently on a global tour to celebrate the company’s 185-year anniversary. While she declined to comment on any potential IPO, stressing that no decision had yet been made, she said that there was work to do to demonstrate the global scale of the business.
AS Watson had kept a low profile over the past four decades, she said, despite it employing 140,000 people worldwide. It has more than 17,000 stores across 12 retail brands in 31 markets, ranging from Watsons chain of health and beauty shops in Asia, Rossmann in Germany, and brands in the UK including Superdrug, Savers and The Perfume Shop. Temasek, Singapore’s state-owned investment manager, has also owned a near 25 per cent stake in AS Watson since 2014.
The business posted annual revenues of HK$209bn (£19.9bn) and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of HK$18.2bn (£1.7bn).
Ngai that despite intense geopolitical uncertainty the business was built “for stability and agility”.
CK Hutchison is also separately considering a listing of its European telecoms operations, although no firm timetable has been set. The company is also considering other options for its telecoms operations, such as asset sales, according to two people familiar with the matter.
It recently agreed to sell its 49 per cent interest in Three, the UK mobile operator, to Vodafone, the latest instance of CK Hutchison offloading assets. In the UK, the conglomerate also owns the pub chain Greene King and a stake in Northumbrian Water.
It is thought that any potential telecom flotation would be unaffected by AS Watson’s plans. The two sets of assets would be pitching to different investors and analysts, according to people familiar with the conglomerate’s thinking.
AS Watson was founded in 1841 by British pharmacist Alexander Skirving Watson, who started dispensing western medicine from a hut in Hong Kong.
The business expanded as Watsons across Hong Kong and was bought by Li, Hong Kong’s richest man, in 1981. The business entered the UK with the acquisition of budget chain Savers in 2000. Steady store expansion means it now has more shops in Europe than China and the rest of Asia.
The upcoming listing of AS Watson comes as British health and beauty retail rival Boots is also expected to be carved out of its US parent Walgreens Boots Alliance in the coming months. Walgreens Boots Alliance was taken private last year by private equity firm Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family, who own a 44 per cent stake in the new private entity.
Stefano Pessina, the billionaire architect of the deals that created the business, told the FT last month that he expected his partner “will of course have to sell sooner or later”.
It was announced last week that Alex Baldock, former chief executive of listed electricals retailer Currys, would join as boss of Boots in the autumn.
It is expected that he will lead the company as a standalone entity. If it were to list, Boots would target at least a £7bn valuation and was unlikely to run another sale auction process after a previous failed attempt, two people close to the situation said.
Boots declined to comment.