The luxury lifestyle company Michael Kors Holdings surprised everyone recent, raising almost $1 billion in an initial public offering. 47.2 million shares were sold, each for $20. This generated proceeds of $944 million and sets the company at a value of about $3.82 billion.
Kors is one of the judges on the hit TV show “Project Runway” and he is the founder and CCO of the company. As Francis Gaskins, the IPOdesktop.com analyst said, “A company like this can go public even in an uncertain market based on their recent successes. They’ve done a lot of things correctly in the past couple of years.”
This example of one of many that shows the luxury good industry rebounding favorably after the sharp drop in 2009. Analysts see 2011 as a record year for the industry, particularly for upscale watchmakers, hotels, fashion designers and leather goods groups. Italian fashion house Prada SpA has a $2.1 billion IPO recently and Italian luxury shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo had one at $487 million.