Levi Strauss announced its debut in the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday and witnessed a 30% increase in its stock. The brand ended up raising a total of $ 623 Million from this and also priced each share at 17 USD. This IPO was above the price range that the brand had expected to hit, and it was a great win for them to be priced so highly. The early trading price of this company is said to be at 22 USD per share. Currently, Levis Strauss is valued at a total of 8.9 Billion USD.
In order to commemorate this momentous occasion, the traders who work at the New York Stock Exchange were permitted to wear jeans to work to celebrate. In general, traders must adhere to a very strict work code and they are not allowed to wear jeans at all.
Levi Strauss had taken a break from being a publicly shared company. This break lasted for 30 years. Even though this company was traded in the 1970s and 1980s, the company decided to become a private one in 1985. So, this re-entry into the public market has been a big deal.
It reported a total earning of $285.2 million, and this was a slight increase from their sales in 2017. Moreover, in 2018, the company’s sales rose to a total of $5.6 Billion, which marked a 14% increase in the brand.
Levi Strauss is a household name in America. However, its global performance is not that great in most of the developing countries. Currently, it does not have a very strong hold on the Chinese market. However, the brand is performing decently well in India. They had opened a store in India in 2017 and also opened their e-commerce site in 2018.
image source: Levi Strauss
