Spanish beauty and cosmetics company Puig Group SL is planning to announce its intention to hold an initial public offering as soon as this coming week, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Barcelona-based, family-owned firm plans to file the so-called Intention to Float document as soon as April 8, the people said. Puig and its current shareholders aim to raise between €2 billion and €3 billion ($2.17 billion-$3.2 billion) with the listing, which will be in Madrid, according to the people.

Deliberations are ongoing and details of the offering could change, the people said. A press officer for Puig declined to comment.

The decision comes after another Spanish firm, the car and auto-parts logistics company Bergé y Compañía announced on April 4 that it was scrapping plans to list its Astara unit amid lukewarm investor interest. Berge’s decision was a setback for bankers, who had been counting on a stream of listings between the Easter holiday and the start of the summer vacation season.

Companies have been prepping for IPOs, emboldened by the surge in benchmark stock indexes to record highs and recent successful offerings from the skincare company Galderma Group AG in Switzerland and social networking platform Reddit Inc. in the US.

But investors still haven’t gotten past their nervousness over the surge in interest rates that kicked off in early 2022, causing the IPO market to falter. An offering last month from the German perfume retailer Douglas AG also fell flat.

Astara’s offering also would have helped revive Spain’s IPO market, where there have been no sizable listings since Acciona SA’s clean-energy unit went public in 2021.

Founded in 1914, Puig is still controlled by the founding family. The company makes perfume, skincare and beauty products as well as clothing, with brands including Charlotte Tilbury, Barbara Sturm and Jean Paul Gaultier.

In 2023, Puig posted net revenues of €4.3 billion, up 19% from 2022, and record earnings before interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation of €849 million, with an EBITDA margin of 20%, the company said in March.

By Swetha Gopinath, Rodrigo Orihuela and Macarena Muñoz, with assistance from Manuel Baigorri.

Learn more:

When Should Fashion Companies Go Public?

Any fashion company that is contemplating going public needs to have not only the product and brand fundamentals right but also a business strategy that can easily be understood by the markets, writes Imran Amed.

Last month when Coachella tickets went on sale and did not immediately sell out, it touched off a bit of soul searching. The two-weekend music festival had, bit by bit and then all at once, built its identity as the influencer event of the year.

Those tickets did eventually sell, but there was still a lingering fear among the selfie set: if 150,000 people showed up in the California desert and their TikToks didn’t go viral, did Coachella really happen?

It’s a pressing question for fashion and beauty brands, too. Coachella has played host to some of the industry’s most over-the-top marketing activations over the years, and turned niche labels into Instagram sensations. Countless brands release “festival edits,” with a mix of new items and Coachella-friendly selections from their inventory (this year, prairie dresses and jorts are proving popular, while more dressed up styles, such as sequined dresses, are on the way out, according to retail analytics firm Edited). Festival sponsors make over gas stations, build party houses from scratch and host elaborate, all-day events with their own slates of musical artists. The Revolve Festival, hosted by the influencer-friendly online apparel brand since 2015, is a veritable institution at this point; the brand’s sales now top $1 billion.

This year, Revolve Festival is down to one day, from two (the status of the region’s gas stations remains unknown at press time). It’s contributing to a general sense that Coachella is less essential than it used to be. Music lovers, influencers and brands now have their pick of all-day concerts. Of retailers tracked by Edited, just one, Wolf & Badger, has released a Coachella edit, with others opting for a generic “festival edit,” albeit often with desert themes. Tecovas, a western wear brand that can thank Coachella in part for the surging popularity of its cowboy boots among non-cowboys, has no official presence at the festival, opting to sponsor the country-themed Stagecoach at the same venue later this month.

Coachella is also feeling the effects of changes in the marketing world, particularly in how influencers build and monetise their brands. Take Aimee Song, a Revolve Festival regular, whose Song of Style collection has been sold by the company since 2019. She is independently launching a new luxury knitwear line, Amiya, and says she wants the clothes to be the main attraction, rather than her Instagram feed. Coachella doesn’t feel like the right place to market $1,000 sweaters.

That’s not to say the festival is a flop. Plenty of fashion and fashion-adjacent brands will be on site, with Paper and Nylon magazines and True Religion hosting events, among others. Levi’s still sponsors the Neon Carnival dance party, and Nike will be pushing its newly released Air Max Dns.

And if you still question whether Coachella still has a unique ability to draw attention, check out the frenzy over reports that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were making the trek to see Friday’s headliner, Lana Del Rey. The couple definitely weren’t in the audience for the singer’s stops in Huntsville, Alabama or Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.

“I am a Coachella guy,” Kelce told People.

The Week Ahead wants to hear from you! Send tips, suggestions, complaints and compliments to brian.baskin@businessoffashion.com.

Italy’s Ermenegildo Zegna posted a 19.3 percent increase in full-year organic revenue on Friday and proposed a 20 percent hike in its annual dividend, helped by robust demand for its luxury products.

The family-owned fashion group, which controls menswear brand Zegna, as well as the US labels Thom Browne and Tom Ford Fashion, saw a 24 percent increase in Greater China revenue during the period.

“We are on track with the integration of the Tom Ford Fashion business, which is enriching our unique proposition in luxury glamour” Chairman and CEO Ermenegildo Zegna said.

The company’s full-year revenue reached 1.9 billion euros ($2.06 billion) in 2023 and it has proposed a dividend of 0.12 euros ($0.1300) per share.

Zegna, which debuted on Wall Street in late 2021, said its EBIT reached 220 million euros in 2023, compared to 157.7 million euros in the prior year.

By Gursimran Kaur; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar

Learn more:

Ermenegildo Zegna Sidesteps Luxury’s US Slowdown

Sales in America were boosted by the company’s acquisition of the Tom Ford fashion business, as well as double digit growth at Zegna and Thom Browne.

An Italian court on Friday placed under judicial administration a company owned by Italian fashion group Armani, accused of indirectly subcontracting its production to Chinese companies that exploited workers.

The court in Milan ordered a one-year receivership for Giorgio Armani Operations, described as an industrial company of the Armani Group, according to the ruling seen by Reuters.

It said Giorgio Armani Operations had entrusted the production of its bags to two firms that subcontracted the work to four Chinese companies which paid their workers €2 to €3 ($3.25) per hour.

Armani Group said in a statement it had “always had control and prevention measures in place to minimise abuses in the supply chain,” adding it would work with the authorities to clarify its position.

The Milan public prosecutors’ office has for years been investigating the outsourcing of production by large groups in the fashion and other industries to subcontractors who allegedly exploit workers.

The fashion company Alviero Martini, which had its bags produced by external Chinese workshops, was recently placed under judicial supervision.

With its tradition of sophisticated craftsmanship, Italy is home to thousands of small manufacturers that cover 50-55 percent of the global production of luxury clothing and leather goods, consultancy Bain calculates, against 20-25 percent for the rest of Europe.

Learn more:

Luxury Brands Lag on Efforts to Reduce Forced Labour

Despite strides made to eliminate the use of forced labour in fashion’s supply chain, companies’ lack of transparency is causing them to fall behind, according to a new industry report.