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Blue jeans giant Levi Strauss & Co.’s Thursday initial public offering is more than 10 times oversubscribed, three sources familiar tell CNBC.
The world’s largest jeans seller is expected to list nearly 37 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange at a price between $14 and $16 under the symbol LEVI.
The sources said it was likely to price above that range, but the situation is still fluid and dependent on market conditions.
Members of the Haas family will sell more than 21 million shares in the IPO. At $15 a share, the midpoint of the expected range, the value of the family’s collective proceeds would be nearly $317 million.
The 166-year-old company first went public in 1971, but has been private for the last 34 years. Levi declined to comment on the offering demand.
Over the last 10 years, global jeans sales have climbed at a 3.5 percent compounded annual growth rate, slower than the entire apparel category, according to Bernstein analyst Jamie Merriman.
The newly public company hopes to improve market share with women, on the internet and in China. Its men’s business accounted for $4 billion of Levi’s $5.6 billion 2018 revenue, while just 3 percent of its revenue came from China.
— With reporting by Courtney Reagan .
