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The Douglas group’s path towards listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is progressing. The European chain of premium perfumeries – controlled by the private equity giant CVC Capital Partners and owned by the Kreke family – has in fact set a price range of 26 euros to 30 euros for the shares for one of the largest IPOs in Europe since its inception of the year.
The objective of the group and its management is to raise up to 907 million euros, mainly from the issue of new shares which would lead to a capitalization of 3.1 billion euros. The capital raised, together with the further capital injection of 300 million by the current shareholder, will be used to reduce the debt which at the end of December, according to data for the last quarter, amounted to over 3 billion, while the remaining loans will be refinanced on better terms. The first trading day is scheduled for March 21 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
«Last year with the arrival of spring we announced our new strategy and exactly one year later we are moving towards the listing of the company in Frankfurt – comments Sander van der Laan, CEO of the Douglas group -. I see it as a sign of the growth path we have undertaken: with our solid business model and our effective development strategy we are excellently positioned in a very interesting market. The deleveraging combined with the IPO will increase our financial flexibility and provide further support to our development.”