Digital luxury marketplace Mytheresa is headed toward an IPO next year.
Parent firm MYT Netherlands Parent B.V. said on Monday that it has publicly filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering, though the company is mum on details like the number of shares to be issued or proposed stock prices.
The filing comes as digital commerce is booming. While the pandemic has hurt all retail channels, particularly in-store shopping, online sales have continued to outpace expectations. And even though the pandemic is hitting a second wave or even third in many parts of the world, luxury retail sales in parts of Asia have been holding their own. Rival luxury marketplace Farfetch last month secured investments from Alibaba and Swiss luxury firm Richemont in a renewed focus on China.
Offering access to roughly 250 of the world’s top luxury brands, Mytheresa was previously owned by Neiman Marcus Group after a 2014 acquisition but left out of the department store’s industry-rattling bankruptcy earlier this year, Mytheresa is now under a separate ownership structure after creditors resolved their dispute so Neiman could exit Chapter 11.
Morgan Stanley is the lead book-runner along with J.P. Morgan Securities. The draft registration filing with the SEC still requires the commission to complete its review process. Market conditions are likely to influence whether the IPO comes to fruition.
On Nov. 23, the company had already confidentially filed for an IPO in the U.S. The plan is to offer American Depository Shares representing its ordinary shares. An ADS is an equity share of a non-U.S. firm, held by a U.S. depository bank, that is traded on a major American exchange. The company is expected to raise up to $150 million. At the time of last month’s confidential filing, the company was believed to be targeting a valuation range of $1 billion to $1.5 billion.