Neiman Marcus IPO: Luxury Retailer Files To Go Public; Looking To Raise $100M

Neiman Marcus Group Inc. filed for a $100 million initial public offering Tuesday, marking the second attempt by the luxury retailer to go public since 2013, the company said in an S1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The move comes less than two years after the Dallas department store group was bought by Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $6 billion; the purchase occurred after Neiman Marcus had filed plans to go public, in June 2013.

Neiman Marcus will list its stock under the ticker symbol “NMG,” but it has yet to name a stock exchange.

The retailer, which opened its first store in Dallas in 1907, was previously a publicly traded company, until it was acquired for $5.1 billion in 2005 by two private equity firms, Warburg Pincus and Texas Pacific Group.

In 1986, the company thwarted a hostile takeover bid by The Limited Brands Group by spinning off its specialty store division into an independent, publicly traded company called The Neiman Marcus Group, Inc.

The company posted $4.8 billion in revenue in 2014, and it hit 22 consecutive quarters of positive quarterly comparable revenue growth through the end of the quarter ending May 3, the company said.

Neiman Marcus Group Inc., which works with luxury designers Chanel, Gucci and Prada, operates a portfolio of stores, including the Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and MyTheresa brands.

Neiman Marcus operates 41 full-line stores in marquee retail locations in major U.S. markets, while the Bergdorf Goodman brand caters to luxury clientele, operating two full-line stores, including its landmark locations on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

The MyTheresa brand, which was acquired by Neiman Marcus in October 2014, appeals to younger, fashion-forward, luxury customers, primarily from Europe, Asia and the Middle East, with one flagship store in Munich, Germany.

The global luxury fashion market is projected to grow from $308 billion in 2015 to $354 billion in 2019, according to Euromonitor International, Neiman said in its SEC filing.

“The increasing demand for luxury fashion will be driven primarily by the growing affluence of luxury consumers in the North American and other developed markets and by the increasing desire for luxury goods exhibited by consumers in developing international markets, especially Asia and the Middle East,” the company said in the S1 filing.

The age of the average Neiman Marcus customer is 51, and 79 percent of them are female. Around 38 percent of its customers have a median household income of more than $200,000, according to the filing.