Most fashion designers are lucky if they can take their brand public once but not Tommy Hilfiger. The big-toothed, Elmira, N.Y., native who won the CFDA’s Menswear Designer of the Year in 1995 looks as if he is gearing up for an unprecedented second IPO of his eponymous company early in 2008.
That’s because U.K.-based Apax Partners, the private equity firm that took the clothier private for $1.54 billion at the end of December 2005, is looking to make Hilfiger one of three major fashion labels to go public this year. (The other two are Prada, which we blogged about here, and Salvatore Ferragamo.) Apax’s potential pay day? £2 billion—or approximately $3.9 billion.
The question is whether there is real appetite in the marketplace for another Hilfiger IPO. The reason why Apax bought the company in the first place was that its share price was being pummeled. From a high of $40 a share in the late 1990s it dropped to $6, as the hip-hop crowd it was courting at the time moved on to other looks.
In recent years, Hilfiger--the man and the brand--have kept a lower-profile. The company is today based in Hong Kong and is run by David Dyer, formerly CEO of Land's End. The brand also owns Karl Lagerfeld, the brand not the man. (In addition to his work for his eponymous label, Lagerfeld also designs for Chanel and Fendi.) Once ubiquitous in American shopping malls and magazine ads, Hilfiger is not as high profile as he and his clothes are not as high profile as they had once been.
Maybe keeping out of the public eye will help Hilfiger once again reinvent himself and appear fresh to a new generation of consumers. Lately he has been more on display, introducing a series of live music events in the UK called the Hilfiger Sessions and solidifying his credentials with European soccer fans by signing footballer Thierry Henry as a "global brand ambassador." There is no question that he has design chops. But for a man who was once considered to be the next Ralph Lauren he has a long way to go.
That’s because U.K.-based Apax Partners, the private equity firm that took the clothier private for $1.54 billion at the end of December 2005, is looking to make Hilfiger one of three major fashion labels to go public this year. (The other two are Prada, which we blogged about here, and Salvatore Ferragamo.) Apax’s potential pay day? £2 billion—or approximately $3.9 billion.
The question is whether there is real appetite in the marketplace for another Hilfiger IPO. The reason why Apax bought the company in the first place was that its share price was being pummeled. From a high of $40 a share in the late 1990s it dropped to $6, as the hip-hop crowd it was courting at the time moved on to other looks.
In recent years, Hilfiger--the man and the brand--have kept a lower-profile. The company is today based in Hong Kong and is run by David Dyer, formerly CEO of Land's End. The brand also owns Karl Lagerfeld, the brand not the man. (In addition to his work for his eponymous label, Lagerfeld also designs for Chanel and Fendi.) Once ubiquitous in American shopping malls and magazine ads, Hilfiger is not as high profile as he and his clothes are not as high profile as they had once been.
Maybe keeping out of the public eye will help Hilfiger once again reinvent himself and appear fresh to a new generation of consumers. Lately he has been more on display, introducing a series of live music events in the UK called the Hilfiger Sessions and solidifying his credentials with European soccer fans by signing footballer Thierry Henry as a "global brand ambassador." There is no question that he has design chops. But for a man who was once considered to be the next Ralph Lauren he has a long way to go.
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