Second IPO of the year
Return to the trading floor – Douglas sets price range
March 11, 2024, 7:37 p.m
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The perfumery chain has been considered a candidate for an IPO for some time – now the step onto the trading floor should be completed before Easter. The debt burden should decrease significantly. The previous owners do not hand over any papers.
The Douglas perfumery chain is accelerating its planned IPO. Just one week after the official announcement, the subscription period for the shares begins tomorrow, Tuesday. Up to 34.6 million shares will be offered by March 19th in a range of 26 to 30 euros, as Douglas announced in Düsseldorf. This gives the company a market value of between 2.8 billion and 3.1 billion euros.
The proceeds of 850 million euros will largely go to the company itself, which wants to use the money to reduce its debt burden of more than three billion euros. The remaining loans are to be refinanced at better conditions. The issue has a doubly positive effect, CFO Mark Langer recently explained. After the IPO, Douglas will have debts of 2.1 billion euros, 2.7 times the operating result (Ebitda).
The new Douglas shares are scheduled to be traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for the first time on March 21st. Up to 32 percent of the shares would then be in the hands of new shareholders. The financial investor CVC is diluting its stake from 84 percent to around 55 percent. After the IPO, the Kreke family holds a good ten percent. Both existing indirect shareholders will not surrender any shares in the IPO.
Douglas was delisted from the stock exchange in 2013 after the joint takeover by Advent and the Kreke family. In 2015, the majority went to CVC for almost three billion euros after Advent sold off all peripheral businesses.
1850 perfumery stores in 22 countries
Douglas has long been considered a candidate for an IPO, especially since CVC has been there for longer than is usual for financial investors. But last but not least, the Corona crisis delayed the exit. CEO Tina Müller was replaced by the Dutchman Sander van der Laan at the end of 2022.
Douglas operates 1,850 perfumery stores in 22 countries, but now does almost a third of its business online. CFO Langer further explained that 200 new stores should be opened and 400 renovated by 2025/26. In the Christmas quarter, the first of the 2023/24 financial year (end of September), sales rose by eight percent to almost 1.6 billion euros, and the operating result (Ebitda adjusted) rose by 13 percent to 348 million euros. Despite the high debt burden, Douglas’s bottom line is still in the black. By 2026, van der Laan wants to increase sales by an average of seven percent per year to more than five billion euros, with an adjusted return on sales of 18.5 percent.
The IPO is organized by the investment banks Citi, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Unicredit and UBS. Douglas would be the second newcomer to the Frankfurt stock exchange this year after the tank gear manufacturer Renk.