Fidelity's Tom Ewing has seen the value of his small stake in Ocado double in just 10 months after the online grocer unveiled the details of its IPO this morning.
Ocado, which was founded by three former Goldman Sachs bankers in 2000, is aiming for a valuation of over £1bn in its planned IPO, after pricing its £200m share offer at between 200p and 275p.
Assuming a mid-point take-up, Ocado would have a market value of £1.18bn.
Ewing, who has a combined stake of just over 1% with another Fidelity manager in Ocado, joined former US Vice President Al Gore's Generation Investment Management and other investors in a £30m equity fundraising last September, which gave the group an enterprise value of £625m.
The manager says a chance meeting at a conference organised by an investment bank led to the opportunity to acquire the Ocado stake. Ewing believes Ocado benefits from superior efficiency and service levels versus larger competitors.
"The inherent advantages of the company's business model will eventually lead to lower prices than all of its competitors," he says.
"I believe that, in the long-term, Ocado is in a position to change the way in which people shop. This kind of opportunity is extremely rare and is an example of the kind of secular growth story I try to populate the fund with."
Ocado's other shareholders include the John Lewis Partnership, UBS, Goldman Sachs and the Rausing family.
