Pacific Brands sets float price

By PAUL PANCKHURST and AGENCIES

Clothing and footwear company Pacific Brands yesterday unveiled the transtasman share float that seeks to raise up to $1.46 billion.

The offer for retail investors in New Zealand will open next Monday and close on March 24.

Retail investors will pay $2.95 or A$2.60 per share, then receive refunds if the final price is lower.

The vendors, private equity funds Catalyst and CVC Asia Pacific, will not retain a stake. Pacific Brands reported sales of about A$1.5 billion in the 2003 financial year from a big portfolio of brands such as Berlei, Bonds and Holeproof.

It makes about half the underwear sold in Australia.

The company plans to list on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges on April 14 after an institutional bookbuild to set the price of its 503 million shares.

The possible range per share is A$2.25 to A$2.60.

In the prospectus, the company forecasts a bottomline profit for the year to June 30 of A$41 million, rising next year to A$58 million.

It forecasts earnings per share of 19.5Ac and a final dividend of 13.4Ac for the year to June 30, 2005.

CVC Asia managing director Andrew Cummins said an initial public offering was always planned for between two years and five years from buying the business.

"The company is sufficiently independent and sufficiently well-known to the market so we can actually IPO it quite quickly," he said.

"Two-and-a-half years is not unusual. When you buy a business you know within six months whether you've done the right thing.

Chairman Pat Handley and chief executive Paul Moore said the company's strong cashflows were forecast to continue in the coming two financial years.

Macquarie Bank and UBS are the lead managers for the float.

The co-managers in New Zealand are ABN Amro Craigs and First NZ Capital.