Zalando potentially preparing for Europe's largest internet float

Zalando has reportedly enlisted the aid of three banks to advise

it on what it rumored to become Europe's largest internet float since 2000.

The German online fashion company is thought to have approached Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to give advice on its potential offering, but has yet to formally nominate them. The Sunday Times reported that float could value Zalando at over 5 billion euros or 4 billion pounds, making it the biggest IPO for an online based company.

A future IPO could make a number of Zalando's current high-profile investors even wealthier, which includes: Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who was an early supporter of Facebook, Anders Holch Povlsen, owner of Danish fashion group Bestseller who holds a 10 percent stake in the Berlin-based company and Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, which owns a 37 percent stake. The company's founders, brothers Marc, Alexander and Olivier Samwer, would also benefit from a potential public listing, as they are still shareholders in the company with a 17 percent share.

Last December, Zalando applied to change its legal structure to an Aktiengesellschaft (AG) limited company to supported the growing size of the company, a formula that is typically used by German listed companies, which initially sparked the rumors of an upcoming listing.

Found five years ago, Zalando has grown to become the largest online fashion retailer and generated over 809 million euros in turnover in the first half of 2013, up from 471 million euros in the first half of 2012.