Jean Paul Gaultier owner Puig plans $2.7 billon \IPO

Carolina Herrera RTW Fall 2024 as part of New York Ready to Wear Fashion Week on February 12, 2024 in New York.

Fashion conglomerate Puig Brands plans to hoist billions of its shares on the public market — making it the largest initial public offering in the world this year.

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Spain-based Puig — the owner of couture labels including Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, and Carolina Herrera — plans to raise €1.25 billion, or about $1.35 billion, in an initial funding round, The Financial Times reports. The company is also planning a secondary stock sale that would bring the total money raised to more than €2.5 billion, or about $2.7 billion.

And The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reports that the company’s existing shareholders plan to sell stock as well.

Puig CEO Marc Puig said in a statement reported by Reuters that the company believes being a “family-owned company that is also subject to market accountability” will give it more room to “compete in the international beauty market.” Founded in 1914, the Puig family will keep its majority stake in the group, the company said.

In October, Marc Puig said the company was considering an IPO, along with other options to raise new cash, The Financial Times reported. An IPO could bring the 110-year-old family business “discipline and rigor,” Marc Puig told the publication.

Puig, which is the also majority shareholder of Jean Paul Gaultier, posted record sales in 2023 of an estimated €4.3 billion, or about $4.4 billion.