Mytheresa Prepares for IPO With Valuation as High as $1.6 Billion
Mytheresa’s post-drama price tag is showing a nice bump in valuation over the past couple years.
The Munich-based e-commerce company — which was carved out from Neiman Marcus Group and then became a hot-button issue in the luxury retailer’s bankruptcy — set the terms of its initial public offering and could be valued as high as $1.6 billion.
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Mytheresa’s valuation was pegged at roughly $822 million in 2018, although estimates have ranged both higher and lower.
The company plans to sell 15.6 million American Depositary Shares for $16 to $18, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “MYTE.”
At the upper end of that range, Mytheresa would raise $281.6 million — or $323.9 million if underwriters exercise an option to buy another 2.3 million shares. Up to $206.4 million of the company’s proceeds are set to be used to pay down loans from shareholders that are due 2025 and carry an interest rate of 6 percent.
Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which bought Neiman Marcus Group for $6 billion in 2013 and ultimately spun Mytheresa off to themselves in a move contested by debtholders, will continue to control about 80 percent of the company after the offering.
The bankruptcy saw the dispute ultimately settled, leaving Mytheresa clear to go public, but the process did lead to one dramatic aside when hedge fund Marble Ridge was shuttered and its managing partner, Dan Kamensky, was charged with securities fraud, extortion, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.
Kamensky allegedly tried to prevent Jefferies Financial Group from competing against Marble Ridge for Mytheresa. He was recorded saying, “If you’re going to continue to tell them what you just told me, I’m going to jail, OK? Because they’re going to say that I abused my position as a fiduciary, which I probably did, right? Maybe I should go to jail. But I’m asking you not to put me in jail.”
But now, the focus is on the company’s operations and just how it can take advantage of an e-commerce landscape that has been supercharged by the pandemic and promisees to be forever changed.
For the year ended June 30, the firm’s adjusted income rose 22.2 percent to 19.3 million euros as sales rose 18.6 percent to 449 million euros.
The company has long-standing brand relationships with the likes of Alexander McQueen, Fendi, Gucci, Prada and many more, but also finds itself coming up against a newly empowered Farfetch, which linked with Compagnie Financière Richemont and Alibaba in a potentially industry-changing partnership.
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