Coty files for $700m IPO
A precursor to further acquisitions?
Coty Inc has filed with US regulators to raise as much as $700m in an initial public offering of common stock, following its rebuffed $10.7bn takeover bid for Avon. The move would give Coty, whose fragrance and beauty brands included Calvin Klein and OPI among others, the opportunity to be more aggressive in pursuing future acquisitions.
The company, which was founded in 1904 by Francois Coty, is majority owned by German conglomerate Joh. A. Benckiser, while Berkshire Hathaway and private equity firm Rhone each own a 7.5% stake. The filing did not reveal how many shares Coty planned to sell or the expected price, but the company told the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus that BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley were the lead underwriters of the IPO. The company intends to list its common stock on the Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol COTY.