The company, which sells cosmetics and herbal Provence, today launched an offer reserved for the Asian market, covering 25% of its capital, half through a capital increase. She hopes to raise 530 million euros as well. The sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. should attend to the tune of 50 million dollars. L'Occitane operates 1,517 stores worldwide and plans to open 650 new in the five years. Reinold Geiger, discreet Austrian businessman, bought the company in 1996. It explains the objectives of this operation.
LE FIGARO. – Why did you finally decided to get an IPO?
Reinold Geiger. – This is the beginning of a new stage. We had a mini-LBO (leveraged buyout, management buyout leveraged) three years ago by buying 13% of our shares to Clarins and 12% to a private investor.Since then, it seemed that the best solution for us was to develop an IPO. It is also a way of giving a market value of the holding company, many employees are shareholders. I will keep a majority stake, or about 52%.
Why Hong Kong?
We sell more in Asia than in Europe and the U.S. together and that's where we are going as we develop. Being listed on Hong Kong will help increase the awareness of society in the region, very important factor to attract consumers. When we arrived in 1997 in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it did not work at all, while in New York where we opened at the same time we exceed our targets. Our auditors have recommended after three years of closing our operations in Asia! But we persevered, developed the image of the brand and, after three to four years, it exploded.Today, in the minds of Asian consumers, we are comparable to luxury brands that I dare not mention the names for fear of seeming pretentious. All our products continue to be manufactured in France because we sell Provence. We will invest 50 million euros in our production sites payday loans online.
What are your most important markets?
Until now, this is Japan, with 23% of turnover and over 70 stores. Despite the economic crisis, young people continue to consume and we are among the leading imported brands in the country. In Hong Kong, we have 16 stores that work very well. In China, the copiers were installed before us, with hundreds of stores with their signs "Occitown" and "Camenae.It has been very excited at first but the Chinese do not understand our reaction: they explained that it was an honor to be copied! We took two years to mount a 100% subsidiary, which manages more than 40 stores. We will accelerate. China has a potential of 200 to 300 stores eventually. We are also in Taiwan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The United States is our second largest market, with 15% of sales and 170 stores. In Europe, France and the United Kingdom account for 19% of our worldwide sales.
What is your growth potential?
Ten years ago, during an interview in Le Figaro asked me how many shops I have thought ten years later. I said 1000 on a whim – I was 50 at the time! Today we have 1517 in the world. We open about 100 per year.In the year ending March 2009, we achieved a turnover of 537 million euros, up more than 30%. In late December 2009, we were up 14% despite the crisis. We can certainly consider doubling the number of stores worldwide over the medium term. Moreover, we can acquire new brands to develop three or four countries where we operate. We have acquired the cosmetics Melvita there a year and a half and we have already opened in Croatia, Hong Kong and soon in the United States.
With this IPO, you will finally lift the veil on your profitability.
We develop a net profit of more than 10% of turnover.