Local budget-priced cosmetics firms are speeding up their initial public offerings as Korean cosmetics are being well received in the global market, market watchers said.
A local cosmetics firm Tonymoly is set to be listed on Korea’s main stock market Korea Exchange on July 10, and is expected to raise around 80 billion won ($71 million), according to local media outlets on Wednesday. The company set up in 2006 has currently been operating around 1,800 stores in 20 nations including Europe, the Middle East and the Americas apart from Asia.
Apart from Tonymoly, other budget-priced cosmetics firms including Nature Republic and It’S SKIN also plan to go public this year. Analysts say they were supposed to float on the stock market next year but they moved up the date as the market value of local cosmetics firms has gone up in recent years.
Nature Republic is set to complete the IPO by year-end while It‘S SKIN plans to go public no later than next March.
Analysts say the reason behind moving up their schedules is that local cosmetics firms have recently seen a surge in sales with their popularity growing overseas and are likely to raise more money if they go public now. Korean cosmetics makers saw an export growth of 34 per cent over the last five years.
Korea’s largest cosmetics firm AmorePacific’s shares have risen more than 75 per cent this year while others including LG Household & Health Care, Cosmax and Able C&C have all seen over 40 per cent rise in stock prices.