Coty falls in 1st day trading as a public company

[June 14, 2013]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of beauty products company Coty dropped in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company, known for its celebrity fragrances and OPI nail polish, fell 14 cents to close at $17.36 Thursday after falling as low as $16.90 earlier.

Coty Inc.'s initial public offering of about 57.1 million shares raised nearly $1 billion for some of its stockholders. This makes it the third-largest IPO for the year to date, based on proceeds, according to Renaissance Capital.

The offering priced at $17.50, the midpoint of its projected range of $16.50 to $18.50 per share.

Coty won't receive any proceeds from the offering.

The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy an additional 8.6 million shares.

Scott Sweet, senior managing partner at IPOBoutique.com, said in a phone interview that Coty's first day of trading has been disappointing and surprising so far given the high level of brand awareness that the company has.

Sweet said that the amount of flipping -- when someone buys and sells a stock quickly -- seems to be very high.

"You have a lot of renters in the stock, not a whole lot of buyers," he said.

Sweet said that the broader market may be playing a role in the stock's activity. The U.S. stock market wavered in early trading on Thursday before rising by early afternoon. This follows three days of losses.

Coty, founded in Paris in 1904, has managed to successfully broaden its business to cover an array of personal health and beauty needs. While some consumers may not know of the company itself, they more than likely have used some of its brands, which include Rimmel, Sally Hansen and philosophy.

For its fiscal year ended June 30, Coty posted a loss of $324.4 million on $4.61 billion in revenue. Excluding one-time items, it had an adjusted profit of $301 million. For fiscal 2011, Coty reported a profit of $61.7 million on $4.09 billion in revenue.

The New York company originally filed for an IPO last year, but didn't proceed with it. Also in 2012, Coty dropped a $10.7 billion bid for Avon Products Inc. after the makeup company did not accept.

The stock is trading under the "COTY" ticker symbol.

[Associated Press]

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