Those shares look good on you... Fresh off the top shelf, Levi's IPO'd Thursday, jumping to a $9B valuation under uncreative ticker symbol "LEVI." Since 70% of its sales are to dudes, it's now focused on convincing women Levi's isn't their dads' jeans company.
Look who's sporting Canadian tuxes now... It's the Haas family. They're decendents of the founder, old man Levi Strauss himself, and that family tree's controled the brand for 166 years. This IPO means they're fashionably cashing out part of their heritage.
- Before yesterday they owned over 80% of the company's voting shares. That means they could add a 3rd back pocket if they wanted.
- The Haas fam's selling 21M shares during this IPO in return for cash — $623M total.
- FYI, this is the 2nd time they've listed shares publicly -- Levi's actually IPO'd back in 1971, then went private in 1985. Now they're trying it on again.
The timing fits poorly... Jean sales globally have only grown 3.5% the last decade, slower than fashion overall (blame athleisurewear, @Lululemon). And Levi competitors Old Navy and Wrangler are getting spun-off into their own publicly-traded companies this year.