Prada, the Italian luxury goods maker, has received approval to go public in Hong Kong as the company seeks to sell one-fifth stake in itself for about 1.8 billion euros ($2.5 billion), a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The approval for the offering, which would be the first for a European luxury group in Hong Kong, came after meetings late Thursday between the company and the exchange, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly.
Prada, which makes handbags, shoes and clothing, is tapping the wealth of Asian investors, whose appetite for share issues is proving to be voracious.
Globally, Hong Kong was the most active exchange last year for the second year in a row, with companies raising $57.4 billion. Prada said in March that revenue grew by almost a third to 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion) last year, while net profit hit 251 million euros ($358.2 million), two-and-a-half times what it earned the year before. Sales in Asia expanded 63 per cent last year, it said.
The joint global coordinators for the issue, first announced in January, are Banca IMI-Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit, Goldman Sachs and a unit of Credit Agricole, CLSA. Its legal advisers are Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, Slaughter & May and Davis Polk.
The company is planning to list around June 24, after a road show for potential investors set to begin in Singapore on June 6, the person said.
©2011 The New York Times News Service
