Luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus heads back to the stock market

Ferrari and Boeing in Christmas catalog

Neiman Marcus is a chain of 42 luxury department stores all across the United States, which also owns the two Bergdorf Goodman department stores on 5th Avenue in New York. The company now seeks a return on the stock market, after a decade of not featuring on the NYSE. Back then, its two former owners (two investment funds) bought all shares and took the company off the stock exchange.

Its current owners however (Ares Management, Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and Leonard Green & Partners) aim to attract 100 million euro at the IPO. Documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission show Neiman Marcus’ desire to “anticipate expansion of the luxury retail market” and its need for “cash to upgrade stores and pay down debt”.

The company, founded in 1907 in Dallas by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie and her husband A.L. Neiman, was a family business until 1988. It became one of the most luxurious and expensive department stores in the United States, best known for its annual extravagant Christmas catalog, which contained a Ferrari in 2012 and an actual Boeing last year. 2014 turnover reached 4.8 billion dollars (4.4 billion euro).