Levi’s is going back to the stock

Author: Marcus Schilling
Date: 16.11.2018

Overall rating of $ 5 billion planned

The 145 year old company Levi’s, which is known for the first blue jeans, wants to go back to the stock market. The jeans manufacturer went public for the first time in 1971. A new attempt should now be made in the first quarter of 2019. The goal is to achieve an overall valuation of over five billion dollars (4.4 billion euros) and to collect between 600 and 800 million dollars from investors. This was announced by the channel CNBC according to information from insiders.

The US banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgen are supposed to be the clients of the IPO. However, the timing and scope of the deal have not yet been determined, according to the channel. Levi’s made no statement on the matter.

The long-established jeans company went public in 1971, but left the market in the mid-1980s as part of the privatization process. At that time, it generated 50 million dollars – one of the largest IPOs of that time, although the family owned most of the shares. As profits fell, Levi’s was privatized in 1984 through a leveraged acquisition of their descendants. In 1996 the last shares of the employees and investors were acquired.

The current owners are the descendants of the former company founder Levi Strauss. He emigrated from Bavaria to New York and moved to California in 1853 due to the gold rush on the US west coast. Together with his business partner Jacob Davis, Strauss is known as the inventor of jeans.

Levi’s and its subsidiaries Dockers and Denizen currently design and sell jeans. The company has over 2,900 retail stores worldwide. The manufacturer’s products are sold in more than 50,000 stores in 110 countries.