Neiman Marcus Tentatively Files to Go Public, In Initial Public Offering (IPO) From Luxury Retailer

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, Inc. filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, taking it one step closer toward the public corporate realm.

But it isn’t clear that this means the company will eventually become public, reports CNN Money. The company could still sell itself to the highest private bidder, a subject of discussion in recent weeks by Neiman Marcus’ owners.

The filing lists a placeholder offering of $100 million, which values the company’s shares at a placeholder cost of 1 cent each. If the Dallas company later becomes public, it’ll likely be worth significantly more than that – it became private seven years earlier for $5.1 billion.

The firm’s prospectus shows that it earned $4.5 billion revenue in April 2013, up 6.5 percent from a year earlier. It emphasized its rapidly expanding online operations, now annually worth $1 billion in sales.

Otherwise, details on the IPO were scant, with the offering seen as a tentative and preliminary first move. Reuters reports that many companies owned by private equity groups, as Neiman Marcus is, often try to sell themselves to other firms while also preparing for an IPO, a so-called “dual track” method.

The number of shares to be sold and the price of shares were not set, according to a company statement.

Their public offering has not yet become effective, said the company in a press release.