By CultureBanx Team
- Levi’s is reportedly planning $5B IPO
- During the first nine months of the year Levi’s revenue has gone up 16%
Levi’s is considering returning to the stock market more than 30 years after it went private. The company is reportedly planning and IPO that values it at up to $5 billion sources told CNBC, despite many stores closing that sell Levi’s brands. As culture changes and sub-cultures spring up, is now the right time for Levi’s to become a publicly traded company once again?
Why This Matters: Hip-hop’s love affair with jeans is as diverse and varied as the genre itself. Straight legged denim like Levi’s classic 501 or 505 jeans kept your favorite old school rappers looking fresh back in the ’80s, and its popularity has grown among today’s urban entertainers. The denim maker has been around the block a time or two, they first went public back in 1971, before family members took it back private in 1984 through a leveraged buyout. Levi’s is looking to raise between $600 million and $800 million for its new IPO and investors seem to think that’s a fair price.
Since Levi’s bonds are publicly traded, which means it has to report quarterly earnings to the SEC, during the first nine months of the year revenue has gone up 16%. Net income jumped 44%, mainly due to demand for its jeans at both retail stores and online.
Hip-hop’s love affair with jeans is as diverse and varied as the genre itself
This wardrobe staple has can be a major sales driver for many brands but perhaps Levi’s has benefitted the most with its imminent IPO. Nordstrom (JWN -13.66%) tried and failed last year to go private and shares have been unable to stabilize, down nearly 15% in the past two years. Levi’s is planning to go public during the the first quarter of 2019.
Situational Awareness: Denim in general has come a long way in the African American community, especially jeans which used to be referred to as ‘Negro clothes.’ Slave owners bought denim for their enslaved workers, partly because the material was sturdy and it helped easily distinguish them from the linen suits of plantation families. Even soul icon James Brown, refused to wear jeans and for years prevented members of his band from wearing them as well.
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