According to circles, the traditional sandal manufacturer Birkenstock wants to achieve a valuation of at least ten billion US dollars in its planned IPO in the United States. The German company wants to start collecting bids from investors next week, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Tuesday evening, citing people familiar with the matter. A valuation in the double-digit billion range would be slightly more than recently speculated.
According to the information, Birkenstock plans to publish the price and further details of the IPO on October 10th. The shares will then be traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) one day later. The fact that the company, headquartered in Linz am Rhein in Rhineland-Palatinate, is going public in the USA is seen as a further defeat for the German financial center. There were very few IPOs in this country, partly because German companies like Biontech prefer to seek their capital market fortunes abroad.
“Inventor of the footbed” goes public
And now Birkenstock, a traditional German company, is going public in New York, partly because of the brand’s high popularity in the USA. According to the company, Birkenstock’s origins date back to 1774. Almost 250 years ago, the shoemaker Johannes Birkenstock laid the foundation for the “shoemaker dynasty”. The company describes itself as the “inventor of the footbed”.
Since 2021, the main owner has been the investment company L Catterton, which is linked to the luxury group LVMH and its billionaire boss Bernard Arnault. L Catterton will retain control of Birkenstock after the IPO. The company will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BIRK”.
The sandals have long since broken away from their former eco-slipper image; in recent years they have increasingly developed into a fashion accessory, also through collaborations with high-end brands such as Dior and Manolo Blahnik. Both celebrities who appeared wearing the sandals and the company’s marketing contributed to the change. Last year, a pair of worn-out Birkenstock sandals belonging to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sold at auction for more than $218,000.
Most recently, Birkenstocks appeared in a symbolic role in the successful “Barbie” film. There, Barbie first has to decide between the artificial Barbie world and the real, human world and choose between pink pumps and brown Birkenstock sandals. Later she can be seen in pink Birkenstocks.
Even in times of globalization, Birkenstock remains committed to Germany as a location. In the last financial year, the entire footbed production took place in the German companies – and 95 percent of the finished products came from here. There is additional component production in Portugal. (dpa)