Jeans maker Levi Strauss files to go public
Jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. on Wednesday said it has filed to go public for the first time since 1984.
The San Francisco-based company said it would list its Class A stock on the New York Stock Exchange and trade under the ticker “LEVI.” Levi Strauss said it has yet to determine how many shares will be offered in the initial public offering (IPO), or a price range for the shares.
The filing gave a placeholder initial offering size of $100 million, but that figure is subject to change and is expected to be much higher. Investment banks Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Securities will serve as lead book-running managers for the public filing.
“We have significant opportunity to grow by expanding beyond our core business into other underpenetrated categories, markets and brands,” the company said in its filing, citing plans to expand in its key markets of the United States, France, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
CNBC reported last November that the company would seek to raise roughly $600 million to $800 million through its IPO, with a valuation set at $5 billion.
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Levi Strauss manufactured the first-ever pair of blue jeans in 1873. The company has been privately held since 1984 and is owned by the descendants of Levi Strauss, a German immigrant who founded the brand in 1847.