Prada "Put On" The Coat Of Hong Kong Dollar.

The luxury group, founded in 1913, now has 95% of its shares in the hands of designer Miuccia Prada and her husband, and is also the CEO of Patrizio Bertelli, and the other 5% were acquired by Italy United St Paul Bank (Intesa Sanpaolo) in 2006.

In the past 10 years, Prada has tried to appear on the market for the 4 time.

The initial plan was listed on September 18, 2001, but unexpectedly, 9. 11 events happened just a week ago. The global stock market crashed and the sale of luxury goods plummeted. Prada's IPO was forced to strangle.

In 2002, Prada tried to make a comeback for the two time in a row. However, due to the intense financial turmoil in the accounting scandal of WorldCom, Prada had to postpone IPO.

This is a 6 year delay. Prada's latest attempt was in 2008, but its luck was not very good. The global financial crisis made its fourth IPO plan come to naught.

"Now is the time,"

Entering the 2010, the performance of the major luxury brands has been getting better as the economy has improved. After nearly two years of recession, the growth figures are particularly gratifying.

Even in a good situation, Prada's performance is quite eye-catching.

According to the data released by Prada in September 17th, its revenue rose by 29.4% to 937 million euros in the 6 months ended July, while the profit before the interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBTIDA) increased by 274% to 225 million euros in the same period.

Prada expects total sales in 2010 to reach 2 billion euros, while EBTIDA will reach 450 million to 500 million euros.

For a long time, the financial situation of Prada was quite tense.

When Prada was at its best in 1990s, Bertelli was ambitious, hoping to create a luxury Kingdom like LVMH through acquisitions and mergers. Prada spent hundreds of millions of euros buying several small fashion companies, hoping to build them into global brands, including the heavily purchased Helmut Lang and Jil Sander in 1999.

However, things are not as smooth as they hoped. Although they are all very well known designer brands, the two sides are unable to reach agreement on design and management concepts. Jil Sander and Prada are even more disputes in the later days. The two acquired brands become a major reason for the loss of Prada group for a long time.

The two failed takeovers made Prada carry a huge debt of up to 720 million euros, while its annual sales volume was 1 billion 70 million euros.

This burden has been back to the present day. At the beginning, the debt of 720 million euros has also been getting bigger and bigger. It has reached about 1 billion euros, of which Prada's direct debt is about 450 million euros, and the rest is attributed to its parent company Prada Holding s B.V.

Under the account.

Due to the repayment pressure of the loan maturity, there was news earlier this year that Prada would sell the shares of 1/3 to Richemont, the Swiss luxury group. In July, it was also reported that Chinese businessman Lu Qiang had held 13% of Prada shares and sold it after seeking to hold Prada.

All these hearsay were denied by Prada, but it can not be denied that its financial position is indeed tight.

Prada is gratified that the situation is improving.

The current sales growth will undoubtedly thank the Far East and Asian markets for their appetite for luxury goods.

In the first quarter of this year, Prada Europe's revenue grew by 12%, while the United States was 33%, while Asia's growth rate was 62%.

In the half year of 937 million euro's revenue, Asia alone contributed 47%.

What's more, there is a direct expansion strategy.

In 2009, Prada invested 120 million euros in the construction of Direct stores, mainly opening 33 new stores in Asia and Europe.

In 2010, 30 new outlets were planned, mainly in the Asia Pacific region, and will also be strengthened in markets such as Frankfurt, Prague, Berlin and Lisbon.

Under this strategy, Prada terminated many agreements in central and Eastern Europe, and even closed the only store in Dubai at the beginning of this year.

This move at the world's richest city store was controversial at that time, and the reasons Prada gave were: these stores are operated by agents with low profits.

Direct stores not only have higher profits, but also to a certain extent, reduce the company's dependence on the sale of department stores.

Today, Prada has tasted the sweetness of direct outlets, and its sales in straight stores increased by 41% in the first half of this year. The goal of Bertelli is that next year's revenue will reach more than 70% of the company's total revenue.

Bertelli said, "Prada group will continue to implement its current strategy in the next few years, develop in all markets, and continue to develop our direct store network."

At present, Prada has 282 direct outlets in 80 countries and regions around the world.

The strong performance has made Prada's listing possible again.

Prada has indicated that it hopes to complete the listing when the valuation is over 4 billion euros, and the valuation of the bank has risen to 3 billion to 4 billion euros in July this year. In an active market environment, its valuation will be as high as 5 billion to 6 billion euros.

This time, Hongkong may replace Milan as the listing site of Prada.

With the global IPO market recovering, Hongkong became the world's largest financial center attracting listed companies in 2009, and IPO financing amounted to $31 billion 800 million.

In addition to 2006, the United States has been the king of global IPO financing.

In addition to a large number of mainland Chinese companies, the Hongkong stock exchange has attracted companies in Europe and North America, which want to accelerate the pace of expansion in Asia.

Recent examples include L'OCCITANE (L 'occitane), the French cosmetic brand, which was listed in Hongkong in May 7th this year, became the first French company to list in Hong Kong. This is seen as an important move in developing the Chinese market and its share price has risen 50% in 5 months.

Of course, what is more important is the market behind IPO.

According to the Research Report of "globalization of retailing" published by Wei Lishi, Hongkong, it is the first place in the world to defend the world's top and business fashion capital.

The report points out that Hongkong holds the status of the advanced retail market recognized by both the East and the west, thus attracting global luxury retailers. Hongkong attracted more than 90% of the 47 retailers surveyed.

Moreover, choosing to list in Hongkong is also more conducive to further opening up the potential market in mainland China in the future.

It has become the world's second largest consumer of luxury goods, and is likely to overtake the United States in the next five years and become the largest market for luxury consumption. At present, the power of Prada in the mainland of China is still inferior to rival Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

"If IPO represents a market, then we should go to IPO in this market."

Bertelli said in an interview with the financial times.

Because of this, although a spokesman for Prada said that Hongkong was only one of several listed sites, the market was obviously more optimistic about Hongkong.

If all goes well, Prada will probably become the first global luxury company to list in Hongkong, and it may finally be able to extricate itself from the debt of 1 billion euros.