Caseking is one of the largest and best-known hardware retailers in Germany. Founded in 2003 in Berlin, the company has about 550 employees, 10,000 different products and has already supplied two million customers.
According to a report from news agency Reuters, Caseking’s owner, Gilde Buy Out Partners, has now put the company up for sale. Gilde bought Caseking in 2018 for 190 million euros, which was twelve years of profits for the company.
Now the sale of Caseking is expected to achieve a price of one billion euros. The high valuation is partly due to the Covid pandemic, which has led to a significant increase in sales – sales in 2020 are expected to have been twice as high as in the online retailer’s best year to date. The expected pre-tax profit for 2020 is around 65 million euros. The private owners of the online store are thus hoping for revenues of 14 to 15 annual profits from the sale.
If no buyer can be found, Gilde is also considering an IPO as an exit strategy, according to Reuters.
