More news is trickling out about AS Watson, which owns the UK’s Superdrug chain and The Perfume Shop, with it expected to launch a dual share listing later this year, floating on both the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
The expected listing, which had been rumoured several months ago, should value the firm at around $30 billion and would raise around $2 billion.
Its plan, which was reported by the Financial Times, is still being worked on with insiders saying it hasn’t yet been decided which exchange will see the primary listing. And with it still being dependent on market conditions, there’s always a chance that it could be delayed or cancelled.
Superdrug has been a major success story in UK retail, expanding its chain to make it one of Britain’s top health & beauty retailers.
There are no recent accounts available for the business as its last filing (in July 2025) only covered its figures for 2024. But they showed revenue rising 7% to £1.6 billion and pre-tax profit up 23% to £137 million.
Meanwhile The Perfume Shop has issued several releases showing strongly rising sales around major gift-buying events such as Christmas, Valentines, and Mother’s Day.
Superdrug was founded in 1964 and opened its first store in the UK in 1966. Today, AS Watson operates over 17,000 stores globally across multiple chains and has annual revenue of almost HK$210 billion (close to £20 billion).
The news about Superdrug comes at the same as its major UK rival Boots is also mulling a share listing, and again, London could be the location for this.
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