L’Occitane fell on its first day of Hong Kong trading, but Chairman doesn’t worry at all.
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- L’Occitane International SA, the first French company to hold an initial public offering in Hong Kong, fell on its first day of trading as investors sold stocks on rising concern Europe’s debt crisis may spread.
The shares fell 4.5 percent to close at HK$14.40, after declining as much as 8.5 percent during the day’s trading. The company and parent L’Occitane Groupe SA last week sold a combined 364.12 million shares, a 25 percent stake, at HK$15.08 each, raising HK$5.49 billion ($706 million).
“I’m not at all worried” by Greece’s bailout and the possibility other indebted nations may need assistance, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Reinold Geiger said at a Hong Kong briefing today.
The share sale by the maker of $10 Verbena soap and $66 Mimosa perfume was completed before Swire Properties Ltd. shelved plans to raise as much as HK$20.8 billion as widening concern Greece may need a debt bailout battered the IPO market. L’Occitane Managing Director Andre Hoffmann said yesterday a decline in the euro will help cut business costs, enabling the beauty-products maker to raise the value of sales in Asia.