A Gilt Covered IPO?

With its rival fetching $180 million last week in a sale to Nordstrom, “flash sale” site Gilt Groupe is looking to raise money and go public this year.

The New York Times Dealbook reports that Gilt CEO Kevin P. Ryan says his New York company plans to raise a big chunk of money in the first half of this year. But isn’t in any hurry to sell itself to a brick-and-mortar retailer, just because its smaller rival HauteLook sold to Nordstrom last week.

Instead, Ryan said, he wants to raise some more money with an eye toward going public in early 2012—joining a hit parade of big potential IPOs in the next year and a half that could include Facebook, Groupon, and social-gaming site Zynga.

Nordstrom announced it was buying HauteLook for $180 million in stock last week, a clear indication that “flash sale” sites are gaining traction along with their much larger and more prosaic counterparts—coupon sites like Groupon and LivingSocial.

Flash sale sites generally offer great deals on luxury items that customers need to jump on in typically between 24 to 48 hours in order to get in on the savings.

Generally, these sites resemble invite-only clubs for those interested in high fashion or other such goods and services—from accessories to travel.

And Gilt Groupe has been the king of the industry.

Which is why Ryan tells the Times he’s not particularly worried about HauteLook’s tie-up with Nordstrom.

After all, the valuation for Gilt Groupe the last time it raised money was $500 million, way north of the $180 million HauteLook fetched. That kind of value, Ryan pointed out, makes Gilt a little bit of a pricey proposition for sale to a retailer.

It’s more like the kind of thing they buy in the flash sales Wall Street calls IPOs.

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Kent Bernhard Jr. is News Editor of Portfolio.com