Footwear maker Birkenstock Holding Plc priced shares within a marketed range at $46 each in its initial public offering, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t public yet.
In a fourth big test of the US IPO market in a month, Birkenstock and private equity backer L Catterton are set to raise $1.48 billion. The German company and L Catterton were offering about 32 million shares for $44 to $49 each on Tuesday.
A representative for Birkenstock didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The price was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
At $46 a share, Birkenstock would have a market value of $8.64 billion based on its filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Including shares reserved for executives, directors and employees, the company has a fully diluted value of about $9.33 billion.
Birkenstock was planning to sell 10.8 million of the shares in the IPO, while L Catterton was to sell 21.5 million and will continue to own about 83% of the stock and control the company, according to the filing.
The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley. Birkenstock shares are expected to begin trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BIRK.
The IPO comes after the best month for US listings since January 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. UK chip designer Arm Holdings Plc, backed by SoftBank Group Corp., raised $5.23 billion including so-called greenshoe shares in September, followed by and grocery delivery startup Instacart at $660 million and marketing and data automation provider Klaviyo Inc. with a $576 million IPO.
Arm’s shares have gained a modest 9.2% from their IPO price, while Instacart is trading 10% below it offer price. Klaviyo has fared the best of the cadre but even after a 22.5% jump in its trading debut, its IPO investors have seen a return of 16%.
The mixed performance by those three have sharpened the focus on Birkenstock as dozens of startups that have been eying the public market decide whether to move next or keep waiting. Those companies include an array of diverse businesses including activewear brand Vuori Inc., weight-loss drugmaker Carmot Therapeutics and GameChange Solar, whose backers include a Koch Industries affiliate, among other candidates, Bloomberg News has reported.
--With assistance from Swetha Gopinath and Gillian Tan.
(Updates with valuation in fourth paragraph)
