The initial public offering of Vince Holding proved that fashion is still very much in demand in Wall Street. At USD 20 per share, the price was one dollar above the clothing store chain's initial marketing range. The price would be plaching the value of the fashion retailer at USD 726 million. Vince Holding is set to start trading under the ticker "VNCE" on Friday, November 22, on the New York Stock Exchange.
According to a report in The New York Times' The Dealbook, the retailer's debut is the newest example of the demand for fashion by public investors. The trend started with the highly-successful IPO of Michael Kors almost two years ago. After that, other fashion houses like Prada and Bruno Cucinelli decided to go public. Just last month, Marc Jacobs also revealed its plans to go public, leaving his post at Louis Vuitton in order to proceed with the IPO of his own label.
Vince Holdings is the latest to join the long list of fashion retailers that have flocked the stock markets. The eleven year-old clothing chain merely started offering women's knits and cashmere sweaters. It has now added menswear and shoes to its inventory. Sales have increased steadily in the past few years. For the first half of the year, Vince Holdings posted revenue of USD 114.7 million, representing a 27% increase in sales from the year before. Profits for the first six months of 2013 also doubled and reached USD 2.4 million.
The New York Times The Dealbook report said the IPO of the fashion chain was also a comeback of sorts for private equity company Sun Capital Partners, the owner of Vince. Five years ago, Sun Capital acquired Kellwood, a collection of retail brands. However, the deal did not give the expected returns that the private equity firm reportedly decided to write down the company to zero at one time. Sun Capital will still hold a 68.1% ownership stake in Vince after the IPO.
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