Click:confetti cannon
Despite the market
anticipation, French flash sale debut on the trading floor has been a
little bit of a disappointment for many in the industry.
The stock began trading on Friday in the form of “share promises”, with
full trading in the shares due to begin on November, 3. As reported by
Bloomberg, soon after the open of the market, the fashion retailer´s share
promises were trading at 17.50 euros, below the offer price of 19.50 euros.
It is noteworthy that this was set at the bottom of the initial price
range of 19.50-26.30 euros, giving a market value for the whole company of
660 million euros.
Showroomprive shares fell as much as 14 percent in the online retailer’s
first day on the Paris exchange after the company and its owners sold
shares for 256 million euros in an initial public offering (IPO) that was
priced at the low end of a range, recalled Reuters.
Despite the timid debut on the trading floor, Showroomprive co-Chief
Executive Officer Thierry Petit told Radio Classique that “We’re happy with
the result especially as many IPOs have been canceled or pushed back
because of a bad market,” about the offer result before the market opened.
“We saw during the roadshow that investors like our model, even in a
complicated context like this one,” added Petit.
In the IPO, Showroomprive raised 50 million euros through a share
capital increase, while existing shareholders sold stock for about 176
million euros. In addition, China’s Vipshop Holdings Ltd. invested 30
million euros, Showroomprive said. Rothschild & Cie acted as financial
adviser in the IPO.
To add some context, it is worth recalling that there have been just
three IPOs in France this year that collectively raised about 3 billion
dollars. With Showroomprive.com originally hoping to raise as much as 424
million dollars and be valued at 958 million dollars, it is easy to
understand how poor this launch has been for investors and analysts.