The private equity firm that owns Lancashire-based Hotter Shoes said on Friday the Skelmersdale firm will be floated on the junior AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in the fourth quarter of this year.

Electra Private Equity plc said it plans to list TGI Fridays and Hotter Shoes, its two remaining portfolio companies, as the buyout firm prepares to wind down.

Electra Private Equity plc chairman Neil Johnson said: “With the recent sale of Sentinel, we enter the final stage of our strategy with confidence, having returned over £2 billion to shareholders since October 2016.

“The new management teams at our two remaining larger portfolio assets, Fridays and Hotter, have performed admirably through the pandemic, not just sustaining their businesses in the most difficult circumstances, but also transforming them.

“In light of this, and their potential for further significant longer term value creation, the board has decided that the optimal outcome for shareholders is likely to lie in a capital market solution for both businesses.

“It is our intention to demerge Fridays onto the FTSE Main Market late in the third quarter of this year and, subsequently, in the fourth quarter, to bring Hotter on to AIM through reclassification of the Electra entity.

“Plans are well advanced for both listings.”