Handmade goods website operator Etsy files for IPO

[NEW YORK] Etsy Inc, which operates a website that sells handmade goods and craft supplies, filed with US regulators on Wednesday for an initial public offering of common stock.

Goldman Sachs & Co, Allen & Co LLC and Morgan Stanley are underwriting the IPO, Brooklyn, New York-based Etsy told the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus.

The company said it intended to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "ETSY".

Etsy, which was founded in 2005, employs 685 people and has 29 million items listed on its website. The company recorded total revenue of US$195.6 million and gross merchandise sales of US$1.93 billion in 2014.

The company charges a 20-cent listing fee for each item on its site and a 3.5 per cent fee for each completed sale. It also earns from seller services such as its advertising platform, payment processing and shipping labels.

Etsy said it intended to raise up to US$100 million from the IPO, but the filing did not reveal how many shares the company planned to sell or their expected price. The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

REUTERS