By PAUL PANCKHURST
The ever-expanding Pumpkin Patch retail chain - a New Zealand success story gone international - is talking to investment banks and investigating options including a share float.
The privately owned childswear chain has 55 outlets in Australia, 22 in New Zealand and nine in the United Kingdom.
It wholesales
to customers such as United States department store Nordstroms and, across the Tasman, is expanding its network within upmarket department store David Jones.
Pumpkin Patch is about to open its first shop in Ireland, and plans to move into the United Arab Emirates in a three-store joint venture at the start of next year.
Managing director Maurice Prendergast said: "We will open probably close to a dozen stores in the next year - maybe a few more."
Prendergast said the company was looking at its equity structure.
It was talking to investment banks, "as we do all the time".
An initial public offering of shares was possible, but so were options such as raising debt or raising money from private investors.
One of Pumpkin Patch's significant shareholders is the Westpac-managed private equity fund Quadrant Capital, which bought a stake in November 1999.
There is market speculation - which Quadrant denies - that the fund is considering selling that stake.
Prendergast would not disclose the company's revenue or earnings.
Three years ago, news reports on the expansion of what was then a significantly smaller chain put annual sales at $100 million or more.
One market estimate is of an enterprise value of $200 million to $250 million.
The company was founded by Sally Synnott in 1991 with a mail-order catalogue and one retail store.
It opened its first Australian store in 1997, introduced the Urban Angel girls brand in 1999, and moved into the United Kingdom in 2000.
Based in East Tamaki, Pumpkin Patch describes itself as "the largest speciality kidswear retailer in Australia and New Zealand".
The company has long been seen as an excellent candidate for a listing.
A Dow Jones report in April last year said brokers were believed to be pushing for a share offering, "but that idea still appears to be in nappies".
In June, Pumpkin Patch said it was having increasing difficulty with rivals copying its designs at home and overseas.
Prendergast threatened legal action against retailers and manufacturers breaching Pumpkin Patch copyrights or trademarks, but no court cases have eventuated.