Levi Strauss Prices IPO at $17 a Share

One of the oldest denim brands around, Levi Strauss, is about to hit the stock market.

The 166-year old company announced on Wednesday that it has priced its initial public offering at $17 a share. This is higher than was expected as it was anticipated that Levi would price its IPO at around 36.7 million Class A shares between $14 and $16 a share.

The denim company is valued at around $6.6 billion with the announced ipo price and its total raise is now roughly $623 million.

The company’s shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “LEVI.”
CNBC reported on Wednesday that the IPO was more than 10 times oversubscribed.

There are 12 underwriters on the deal led by Goldman Sachs & Co.

The company first went public in 1971, but was again taken private in 1985.

Levi Strauss has said that it has a unique connection with its consumers. In the company’s prospectus, it reads:

Over the last two years, we have significantly increased the level of marketing support for our brands. This disciplined investment in brand-building is a key driver of the inflection in our financial performance that occurred in fiscal year 2017. In 2014, we launched a global brand campaign called “Live in Levi’s,” reflecting that many of our consumers’ greatest moments take place while they are wearing their favorite pair of Levi’s. As part of this ongoing campaign, our “Circles” TV and online ad was one of the top ten most-watched ads on YouTube in 2017, with over 25 million views to date.

We also maintain a leading presence at significant cultural events around the world such as music festivals and sporting events, which have put the Levi’s brand back at the center of culture. In 2013, we secured the naming rights to the new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers, allowing us to connect with sports and music fans across the world. In February 2016, Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium was one of the most-watched programs in TV history. In April 2017, our Levi’s cutoff shorts, worn by Beyoncé during her headline performance at the Coachella music festival, were deemed the “ultimate Coachella clothing item” by People magazine, with Coachella generating approximately 5.8 billion global impressions for the Levi’s brand.

We are also leading the way in customization and personalization, areas that we believe are increasingly important to today’s consumers. We developed an experiential in-store Tailor Shop concept in which, in select stores, consumers can alter or customize their own jeans and trucker jackets by adding personalized stitching and patches. In addition, we generate exposure through selective collaborations with key influencers such as Justin Timberlake, with whom we launched a 20-piece capsule collection in the fall of 2018, and with popular brands such as Nike’s Air Jordan.
Our second collaboration with Air Jordan in the summer of 2018 generated over one billion global impressions and sold out in minutes.