Birkenstock approaches Wall Street with Kirkland and Latham
The initial public offering of the sandal manufacturer Birkenstock, which had been eagerly awaited for months, was initially unsuccessful in terms of the share price. On the first day of trading on Wall Street, the share fell almost 13 per cent below the issue price.
However, the Birkenstock share placement raised almost 1.5 billion dollars (about 1.4 billion euros). About two-thirds of that will go to the main owner, L Catterton, which is linked to luxury group LVMH and its boss Bernard Arnault. Birkenstock intends to use its share of the proceeds from the IPO to reduce its debt. Company boss Oliver Reichert stressed after the stock market debut that Birkenstock is focused on sustainable long-term growth. L Catterton will retain control after the IPO.
In the first half of the current financial year, which ended at the end of March, Birkenstock increased its turnover by around 19 percent to 644 million euros. The bottom line was a profit of 40.2 million euros, after around 73.5 million euros a year earlier. The decline was mainly due to unfavourable exchange rates. Birkenstock ended the last business year with 1.24 billion euros in sales and 187 million euros in profits.
The advisors
Birkenstock Holding and L Catterton have been advised in-house by Carsten Jungmann (pictured, Vice President Corporate Law, Governance & Structure) and by the law firm Kirkland & Ellis (with lawyers Anna Schwander, Ross Leff, Joshua Korff, Zoey Hitzert, Benjamin Leyendecker, Philip Goj, Siegfried Büttner, David Huthmacher, Greta-Josefin Harnisch, Josh Kogan, Daniel Hiemer, Vincent Thorn, Brandon Short, Alan Walker, Steph Matko, Sarah Lipinski, Jessica Pushka, Varun Baliga).
CBB/Christian Birkenstock has been advised by the firm Duvinage, with Peter Duvinage.
Birkenstock’s management has been advised by the firm Ego Humrich Wyen, with Henning Wyen and Achim Spengler.
The banking consortium consisting of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley has been advised by the law firm Latham & Watkins (with lawyers Marc Jaffe, Ian Schuman, Adam Gelardi, Rüdiger Malaun, Oliver Seiler, David Rath, Jiyeon Lee-Lim, Karl Mah, Robert Blamires, Jeffrey Tochner, Susan Kempe-Müller, Matthew DeSilva, Darby Dietrich, Emma Gilmore, Camilla Kehler-Weiß, Isabel Willius, Aoife McCabe, Farrah Yan, Kathryn Parsons-Reponte, Pelin Serpin, Daniela Jaeger).
