Blue Star parent Ive Group is set to be floated, and has already met with fund managers ahead of plans to list on the Australian Stock Exchange on July 1. The business will debut as a public company with a $200m market value, and prospective investors will have the opportunity to attend a site tour of the Group’s operations this Friday.

Geoff Selig chairman of the whole group

The company hopes to raise at least $120m, with its existing owners, Wolseley Private Equity and the Selig family, to retain a stake of about 45 per cent in the business once listed. Ive Group is expected to make $19m in net profit for the 2016 financial year and $356m in revenue. The plan to float comes a decade after the disastrous Champ p/e plan – which created then almost destroyed Blue Star – to aggregate printing businesses and float was kyboshed by a combination of factors, including the GFC. Ive now comprises several related divisions, with Sydney-based Blue Star the biggest. The group has been on an aggressive acquisition trail over the past year, buyinmg POS anmd ptomotional products businesses among others. As part of the rebrand Blue Star – which is Australia’s largest sheetfed printer – is being reorganised into five divisions: Print, handling commercial printing; Direct, for all print or digital direct mail; Blue Star Web, which was formerly the web offset business Webstar; Display, for the growing point-of-sale business; and Connect for logistics and distribution. Ive’s iveo division will provide end-to-end multichannel campaign management and execution of design, print, web and mobile, and various consulting and advisory services. Geoff Selig will remain executive chairman of the whole group, with Warwick Hay serving as Ive managing director, and former chief operations officer Matt Aitken as Blue Star chief executive.

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