Birkenstock Holding, a German premium footwear manufacturer, placed its U.S. initial public offering (IPO) at the center of its specified price range of $46 per share on Tuesday.
According to people acquainted with the matter, Birkenstock and its underwriters elected to price the offering cautiously because of market volatility, regardless of having adequate demand to price the share sale at the higher end of the suggested range of $44 to $49 a share.
Based on 32.3 million shares sold, the IPO raised around $1.48 billion and valued the company at approximately $9.3 billion on a fully diluted basis.
Birkenstock is the fourth large firm to go public in the United States in the last four weeks, following chip designer Arm Holdings,food delivery service Instacart, and marketing automation platform Klaviyo.
Following a roughly 18-month dry spell, a series of recent listings briefly stoked hopes of a widespread rebound in equity capital markets. However, in the days following their IPOs, the three newly listed companies lost the majority of their share price gains, raising concerns about the near-term prognosis for new stock market launches.
While shares of Arm and Klaviyo are still trading above their IPO prices, Instacart is currently worth less than its IPO price.
Birkenstock was created in 1774 in the German village of Langen-Bergheim by shoemaker Johannes Birkenstock and his younger brother Johann Adam Birkenstock. After its foundation, the Birkenstock family operated the company for six generations.
The brand has worked hard to establish itself as a stylish item donned by celebrities. Barbie, portrayed by Margot Robbie, adorned a pink pair of Birkenstocks in the climax of the movie released this summer.
In 2021, L. Catterton, the private equity firm backed by French billionaire Bernard Arnault and luxury goods conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, bought a majority share in Birkenstock.
Following the IPO, L. Catterton will own 82.8% of Birkenstock and control a majority of the combined voting power of the company’s outstanding shares.
Birkenstock’s stock will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “BIRK” on Wednesday.
The primary underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley.
