Harvey Nichols, the upmarket fashion store 50.1 per cent owned by Dickson Concepts (International), yesterday made a stunning debut on the London Stock Exchange with a 24 per cent jump in its share price on the first day of trading.
Its flotation in the market was 15 times oversubscribed, after being priced at 270 pence per share, and it immediately leaped to 342 pence, before closing at 335 pence, on a volume of about nine million shares.
Despite the fact that the price was at the top end of the range, and awards the store a price-earnings ratio of 26 - among the highest in the sector - heavy demand was seen for the shares.
The flotation values Dickson Concepts' 49.9 per cent stake that was sold at GBP74.1 million (about HK$867.19 million).
Since Dickson bought the store in 1991, from the Burton Group, turnover has increased by more than 60 per cent, and a pre-tax loss of GBP1.4 million has been turned into a profit of GBP9.1 million.
It is now planned to open a branch in the northern England town of Leeds, and the company's first stand-alone restaurant in London.
