In less than two and a half months, Puig has entered the companies that are part of the Ibex 35. Much earlier than expected, the perfumery and fashion group has seen its commitment to debut on the stock market confirmed with its rapid entry into the selective index. This Monday it has been placed at number 15, behind Repsol and ahead of Banco Sabadell, with a capitalization above 15,000 million euros. The multinational debuted at the beginning of May at a price of 24.50 euros per share and rose on June 12 to 27.60 euros, its maximum value.
Puig Brands, the company listed on the continuous market of the Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao and Valencia Stock Exchanges, was selected a few weeks ago to join the main Spanish stock market index in replacement of Meliá Hotels, which had not met the requirements to be part of it for some time. Since December 2022, the Ibex 35 had not touched its composition, when Unicaja and Logista entered, replacing Siemens Gamesa and PharmaMar.
The debut on the markets of the owner of brands such as Rabanne, Nina Ricci, Jean Paul Gaultier or Carolina Herrera adds a new milestone after becoming the largest European IPO this year and the highest on the Spanish stock market after Aena in 2015. In addition, it ended the long drought of operations that the Barcelona Stock Exchange had experienced. The last similar operation of jumping to the continuous market, although of a much lower volume, was Fluidra in 2007. The possibility of Europastry following in Puig's footsteps is moving away, after the Gallés family's bakery and frozen dough group has postponed its plans to go public.
With its IPO, Puig plans to obtain new resources to finance its growth plan, in addition to refinancing some of the major acquisitions that the group has made in recent years such as Byredo and the Charlotte Tilbury makeup brand. Its objective is to consolidate the Catalan group among the main global companies in the beauty, cosmetics and fashion sector such as L'Oréal, Louis Vuitton or Estée Lauder.
The company, based in Europa Square in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, recorded a record sales figure of more than 4.3 billion euros in 2023, a 19% increase compared to 2022. Net profit rose to 465 million euros (+16%). Founded in Barcelona in 1914, Puig operates in three business segments within the beauty market: fragrances and fashion, with revenues of 3.115 billion euros in 2023, makeup (773 million), and skincare (431 million).
In this new stage of growth, the company, with a portfolio of 17 brands and presence in 32 countries, contemplates the selective acquisition of new brands and strengthening its position in the premium beauty sector. It will also work to increase its market share in Europe and America and in the fragrance and makeup categories, and will also strengthen its presence in Asia-Pacific and in the dermo-cosmetics and skincare categories.
With its IPO, the Barcelona-based company plans the selective acquisition of new brands and to strengthen its position in the premium beauty sectorAll this without losing control of a family company with 110 years of history.In that sense, the Puigs have gone public maintaining 71.7% of the shareholding and 92.5% of the political or voting rights. To do this, the different branches of the Puig family have only divested 25% of the company's capital, and the shares they have put up for sale to be acquired by investors do not have the same rights as the shares held by the family.
The multinational now has Class A shares, reserved for the family, with all economic and political rights; and Class B shares, the only ones listed, with the same economic rights, but with limited political rights. This means that each Class A share will correspond to 5 votes, while Class B shares will only have one vote, so the new shareholders will barely control 5% of the political rights when making business decisions. However, they will have the right to keep 25% of the dividends.
After its stock market debut, CriteriaCaixa has become one of its shareholders. La Caixa's holding company has acquired a stake of over 3% after an investment of 425 million euros. A purchase framed within an ambitious plan to increase its presence in strategic Spanish companies and raise the annual dividend it pays to Fundación La Caixa ---Criteria's sole shareholder--- to 700 million euros. It is not the only operation CriteriaCaixa, chaired by Isidro Fainé and with Ángel Simón as CEO, has carried out in recent months, also entering the capital of ACS or Colonial.