The German footwear company officially goes public, setting a value of up to 9.2 billion US dollars at the top end of the price range for its initial public offering (IPO). Report by World Footwear.

Birkenstock has officially filed for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with 32 million ordinary shares to be offered for sale on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock will be listed on the market under the “BIRK” ticker and should cost between 44 and 49 US dollars per share. The company is seeking a valuation of up to 9.2 billion US dollars; the lower end of the price range represents a valuation of about 8.3 billion US dollars.

Approximately 10.7 million of the shares are being offered by the company, while 21.5 million are at the disposal of a selling shareholder. The shareholder is offering a further 4.8 million shares through the stock exchange’s supplementary allocation clause, which allows the additional shares to be bought within 30 days. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are serving as the lead underwriters for the deal.

Plans for the IPO had been confirmed by Birkenstock in early September. At the same time, the company reported that in the fiscal year that ended on the 30th of September, its sales reached 1.2 billion euros and net earnings totalled 187 million euros. Moreover, in the first half of the current fiscal year, Birkenstock’s sales rose by 19% year-over-year to 644.17 million euros and its profits fell by 45.3% to 40.21 million euros.