PARIS — Shares in German fragrance and beauty retailer Douglas fell sharply in early trading after its return to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Douglas on Tuesday had set the price of its initial public offering at 26 euros a share and the stock opened at 25.50 euros. At 11:50 a.m. CET, the shares were trading at 22.82 euros each, down 10.5 percent against the opening price. At 1:50 p.m., they had reached 22.96 euros.
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Douglas’ IPO began one day before that of Galderma, which is expected to be among Europe’s largest in 2024 and which could value the company at about $17 billion. The pure-play dermatology products maker priced its offering at 53 Swiss francs, or $59.07, a share and will begin trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich on Friday.
IPOs are heating up in the beauty space as stock markets rally and interest-rate rises mitigate. Spanish beauty and fashion company Puig has said it is mulling an IPO as part of strategic options for the future. And Brazil’s Natura & Co. is considering spinning off beleaguered Avon into a separate publicly traded company.
Douglas Group, which is backed by CVC Capital Partners and the Kreke family, plans to use 850 million euros of the IPO proceeds to pay off debt. Three hundred million euros will be injected to bulk up Douglas’ coffers.
At the end of the first quarter of 2024, Douglas’ net debt was 3.06 billion euros. The group’s market value capitalization is at 2.8 billion euros.
Douglas was taken off the stock market in 2013 after Advent International and the Kreke family took the company over. In 2015, CVC Capital Partners acquired Douglas for a reported 2.8 billion euros.
Douglas is now formally called Douglas Group.
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