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 Its owner JAB Luxury, the investment arm of the billionaire German
Reimann family, plans to sell at least 25 percent of the company in
the listing.
Jimmy Choo will market itself as a chance to gain exposure to the
upper end of the shoe market, one of the fastest growing areas in
the luxury goods industry.
Its flotation, however, comes at a challenging moment, with slowing
growth in the industry overall and investor worries about conflicts
in Ukraine and the Middle East which could affect future sales and
expansion plans.
The brand, famous for its rock chic style and perilously high heels,
is seeking to grow its business by opening new stores in Asia and
elsewhere, although no new funds will be raised for the company
itself in the share sale.
Its shoes, costing 300-600 pounds, have featured in TV shows and
films including "Sex and the City" and "The Devil Wears Prada".
Exposure in the Korean show "Love from the Star" boosted the sales
of an anthracite lamé glitter pointy toes pump model called Abel.
Founded in the 1990s by Malaysian bespoke shoe maker Jimmy Choo, the
company has gone through the hands of several private equity firms
before being acquired for more than 500 million pounds in 2011 by
JAB.
Jimmy Choo had 120 directly operated stores as of the end of June
and plans to open 10-15 shops a year until 2016. Around five of
these will be in China where it seeks to ultimately increase its
number of stores to 30 from 11 today.
Comparatively, rival luxury shoe maker Christian Louboutin, famous
for its carmine red soles, has 92 boutiques worldwide of which 13
are in mainland China.
"There are opportunities for specialist shoe brands to come into the
Chinese market," Jimmy Choo Chief Executive Pierre Denis told
reporters on Tuesday.
"We feel very strongly that there is no reason why one day the
Chinese client will not want to have shoes coming from a specialist
company."
NEW STORES
Analysts expect Jimmy Choo will aim to be priced in line with sector
peer Salvatore Ferragamo of Italy <SFER.MI> which is currently
trading on about 12 times next year's core earnings and has a market
valuation of 3.75 billion euros.
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The luxury goods industry is trading on average on about 10 times
next year's core profits.
Jimmy Choo made adjusted core profits (EBITDA) of 46.9 million
pounds on revenue of 281.5 million pounds in 2013. In the first half
of this year, revenue reached 150.2 million pounds with EBITDA of
27.6 million pounds.
The company said overall sales growth in the first half was 9.4
percent, with a like-for-like increase of 2.2 percent which was
impacted by store renovations and roll-out of a new format.
Jimmy Choo last week opened its biggest store ever in New Bond
Street in London designed by the David Collins studio after opening
its first flagship in Beverly Hills in May.
Denis said the brand's biggest market was the United States,
followed by Japan, the country where it had the biggest presence in
Asia and where sales rose by more than 20 percent in the past two
years.
European IPO issuance levels have quadrupled so far this year from
2013, with 177 companies raising $55.5 billion. London has proved a
particularly attractive destination, accounting for $19.8 billion,
or just over a third of issuance, according to Thomson Reuters data.
BoA Merrill Lynch is leading the deal. HSBC [HSBA.L] is acting as
joint bookrunner and BHF-BANK acting as co-lead manager.
(editing by David Clarke/Keith Weir)
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