Soho House plans New York IPO

By Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON (Reuters) -The Soho House private members club plans an initial public offering in New York under the name of Membership Collective Group Inc even though it has never been profitable.

"Soho House has begun the process for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, with plans to list a company that will be known as the Membership Collective Group Inc., or MCG for short," founder Nick Jones said in an email to members seen by Reuters.

"This move will enable us to accelerate our investment in improving both the physical and digital elements of your membership," he said.

The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission used a placeholder figure of $100 million for the offering. It gave no other indication of the size of the offering or how much it would be valued at.

In 2019, Soho House raised $100 million in return for a 5% stake - suggesting a valuation of $2 billion.

J.P.Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and HSBC are joint book runners for the offering. Citibank and William Blair will serve as a co-managers.

MCG began operating as Soho House in 1995 and now has members across physical and digital spaces, including Soho Houses, The Ned in London and Scorpios Beach Club in Mykonos. As of April 4, the group had over 119,000 members.

Among risk factors in the S-1 registration statement filed with the SEC, the group listed COVID-19, Brexit, food price rises and the fact that it had incurred net losses in each year since its inception.

"We have incurred net losses in each year since our inception, and we may not be able to achieve profitability," it said.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kate Holton and Jonathan Oatis)