Online grocer Ocado will not make a profit until 2014, one of the banks advising it on an IPO has revealed.
HSBC analyst Jerome Samuel said, in research distributed to potential investors, that the etailer will lose money until then. That year he expects Ocado to make a pre-tax profit of £25m, the Daily Telegraph reported.
He also questioned whether Ocado is worth in excess of £1bn, as has been mooted. He wrote: “We obtain very different results with our valuation methods we have used, ranging from £775m… to £1.1bn.” He eventually opted to put a sales-based valuation of between £750m and £800m on the business.
According to Samuel’s note, Ocado will have to invest another £80m in its Hatfield distribution centre if it is to run at full capacity and a second warehouse is likely to cost £210m.
It also reveals that Waitrose, whose products Ocado distributes, will receive a sourcing fee expected to come in at £6.4m this year.
Ocado revealed last week that it would go ahead with an IPO, which is expected to raise net proceeds of £200m.
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