Things are getting interesting at Booktopia, the ASX-listed online bookstore that collapsed into voluntary administration on Wednesday after a failed funding effort.Booktopia CEO Tony Nash and co-founder Steve Traurig at the company’s ASX float in 2020.
Up for grabs is Booktopia’s new distribution centre in Sydney, its chunky customer database and long-held publisher relationships. The company, whose stock price collapsed from highs around $3 during the COVID-19-boom times to just 4.5¢ in mid-June, has been in structural decline. Sources who spoke to Street Talk put this down to a series of poor acquisitions, inefficient distribution, ructions at the management level, and board tensions.about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern following its $16.7 million first-half FY23 net loss. At the time, Booktopia had just $1.
Street Talk understands Nash has been on holiday in Greece while this has played out, upsetting employees, the board and no doubt, its creditors. Nash did not respond to our request for comment. Booktopia listed on the ASX in December 2020 at $2.30 as part of a $43.1 million initial public offering through Morgans and Shaw & Partners. It was backed by Ellerston Capital, Washington H Soul Pattinson and Perennial Value Management.has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.