By Emma-Victoria Farr
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Shares in German perfume and cosmetics retailer Douglas fell 6.8% from their IPO price on the first day of trading on Thursday, opening at 25.50 euros each, which would value the company, including debt, at almost 5 billion euros ($5.43 billion).
The listing on the Frankfurt exchange of the 31.8% percent stake is the largest initial public offering since Schott Pharma’s debut in September.
Its final price guidance was 26.00 euros a share on Tuesday.
The company, which is backed by CVC Capital Partners and the Kreke family, will use the IPO proceeds to pay off debt. Its owners have also committed to injecting around 300 million euros of extra capital to bolster the group’s balance sheet.
The group had more than 3 billion euros of net debt at the end of December, according to its latest quarterly disclosures.
Douglas operates 1,850 perfume stores in 22 countries, but now does almost a third of its business online.
This is a return to the stock market for the retailer, which was delisted from the stock exchange in 2013 after a joint takeover by financial investor Advent and the Kreke family.
In 2015, the majority went to CVC for almost three billion euros.
Douglas’ IPO comes amid renewed optimism that Europe’s muted IPO market may be on the mend after two years of limited deal activity.
Swiss skincare group Galderma plans to IPO in Zurich on Friday, in a deal that may value the business at around $17 billion.
Tank gear manufacturer Renk which was the first German IPO this year, has now almost doubled its issue price of 15 euros.
($1 = 0.9177 euros)
(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr, writing by Andrey Sychev, Editing Madeline Chambers and Miral Fahmy)
