Roots, the Canadian-based chain of lifestyle apparel stores, is planning to go public on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The public offering comes two years after a private equity firm, Searchlight Capital, acquired a majority stake in the company and appointed a few months later a new chief executive, Jim Gabel, who had previously worked for Adidas, Reebok and Wolverine Worldwide. Like Canada Goose, which went public last March, Roots has expanded from a leather and footwear company for the outdoor into a more inclusive lifestyle brand to enjoy the open air. At the end of July, Roots had 116 corporate stores in Canada, four in the U.S. and more than 130 partner stores in China and Taiwan, in addition to its global e-commerce platform. The company is reportedly seeking a valuation of 700 million Canadian dollars (€476m-$560m) in the IPO. After growing at an average compound annual rate of 14 percent between 2014 and 2016, it reached a turnover of C$282 million (€192m-$225m) last year, with an 8.3 percent sales increase on a comparable store basis. It generated adjusted Ebitda of C$42 million (€28m-$34m) and net income of C$21 million (€14m-$17m).

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