Puig debuts on the stock market with a gain of 4.2%, the biggest debut of the year in Europe.

This Friday Puig rang the bell in Barcelona with a new carpet and updated spirits for a market that bubbles in 2024 with a new capital that can be attracted to public squares. The maker of fine perfumes and owner of brands such as Carolina Herrera and Paco Rabanne launched this morning the largest IPO expected within a year in Europe and the most important in our country in almost a decade. In the national stock market, it would take three years for investor attention to return to the Spanish stock market, as Acciona Energía spin off parent company with a capitalization of 8,800 million euros.

In the afternoon, Puig shares were up 4.24% at the Catalan company’s first cut-off price, reaching 25.54 euros., after half an hour, return to the starting price. The deal ultimately closed at the top of its expected price range, with demand from institutional investors outstripping available supply (although the firm did not specify how much oversubscription was made). The starting price was set at 24.5 euros per title, and the capitalization was 13,920 million euros, in which the small investor was not allowed to participate. Given these figures, Puig is a strong candidate for the Ibex 35, despite the limited number of entries. free swimming (or free capital) that is quoted on the market, given that the family did not want to give up one iota of control. Puig’s market value automatically puts him above the 10 billion euros that companies such as Banco Sabadell profit from.(after rising this week due to the takeover bid proposed by BBVA), ACS and IAG, and this would be below Repsol’s €17.5 billion.

Puig executive president Marc Puig was in charge of the virtual call for the event, which was not very crowded and had little media presence compared to premieres of its type. Puig expressed his commitment to running the company “with the lights on” in his organizational speech this Friday.

If Puig became the biggest stock market debut of the year, it was thanks to the raising of around 3 billion euros among those who decided to participate and take part in the exit. One of those who publicly admitted this He inverter lever from the La Caixa Foundation,Criteria, which acquired a stake for 3.05% of the capital, equivalent to an investment of 425 million euros. The operation was formulated in two ways: through an increase in capital and the sale of part of the existing one from which the family is separated, and through two types of shares, A, which guarantee Puig’s absolute control over the company (granting five voting rights for each share) and B, which gives one votes per share and provide their owners with economic rights. As a result, after placement The Puig family will retain 71.7% of economic rights and 92.5% of voting rights. This absolutely protects family control, since the voice of new shareholders will be virtually unheard at future shareholder meetings, whose combined vote will never amount to more than 7.5%.

So far in 2024, only two companies in Europe were able to attract more than 2 billion euros in the market. These are the British fund CVC and the Swiss company Galderma, which specializes in skin care and is in the hands of private equity fund EQT. Both raised €2,300 million and €2,600 million respectively, with their shares up 20% in a week and 12% in just over a month.

Dividends

Regarding the remuneration of its shareholders, the group indicates that it has not adopted any dividend policy. However, it does indicate that it intends to distribute cash dividends in a “reasonable manner” in the near future, with the first since its offering in 2025 and timed to 2024 results.

Continuing the tradition, Puig plans to maintain pay (percentage of profits distributed among shareholders) is about 40%, which corresponds to the dividend history.

Perfumery

Puig has market share 11% in so-called haute perfumery. This is the fourth operator in the world. And although the company is in the process of transition, trying to grow in other segments such as cosmetics (18% of sales) and skin care (10%), the fragrance industry continues to be the group’s main source of income. . The sale of Rabanne fragrances alone brings the company a turnover of more than 1 billion euros. (a quarter of the total), a level that it managed to surpass last year and which, according to the 2027 Strategic Plan, the group’s other two bestsellers, Carolina Herrera and Charlotte Tilbury, also expect to reach.

Over the past two years, Puig has managed to double its profits, to 465 million in 2023. During this period, its sales grew by 33% annually, to 4.304 million euros.

The outlook for the industry is very positive. According to the IPO prospectus, It is expected that the sector skin care grow at a rate of 6% until 2027 with an expected global turnover of US$278 billion.. Fragrances will grow another 7% to $79 billion, as will cosmetics, whose sales will increase to $93 billion within three years. Puig who emphasizes the importance Generation Z (those born between 1995 and early 2000s), due to their greater ability to shop online and being more mindful of themselves, will contribute to a strong increase in sales e-commercewhich will account for 26% of global volume in 2027 (Puig already has 26%), and will increase the importance of sales taking place at airports, known as travel retail, which will reach 13%. This is a “very important” part of Puig’s sales. which even debuted some of its perfumes in these places in 2022 and then in high street stores.