Italian fashion powerhouse Prada saw its best year ever in 2007 and is now waiting for the right moment to enter the stock market, CEO Patrizio Bertelli said.
The 2007 balance sheet was approved on Monday and showed consolidated earnings of 1.661 billion euros, up 18.8% over 2006, while net profit jumped 65.8% to 127 million euros.
The group's net indebtedness declined to 507.5 million euros.
After presenting the balance sheet, Bertelli observed that for Prada ''going public represents an opportunity for us to fulfill our growth projects. We are keeping a close eye on financial markets and when the time is right we will make our move''.
Prada is 95% owned by designer Miuccia Prada and her husband, Bertelli.
Earlier this year Bertelli denied press reports that Prada had set a June date for its initial public offer (IPO).
''We have no date for our IPO. Our advisors and global coordinator are at work on the project and a decision on a date for an initial public offer will be made at the proper time,'' Prada told ANSA in mid-January.
In December, Prada formally asked Banca IMI, UBM and Goldman Sachs to coordinate an IPO for next year, while Mediobanca was called in as financial advisor.
A note from Prada's board of directors at the time said the IPO would be launched on the Milan stock market sometime in 2008 and when market conditions permitted.
UBM is part of Unicredit and Banca IMI is a division of Intesa SanPaolo, Italy's number one and two banks respectively.
Intesa and Unicredit have from the start been indicated as possible advisors for an IPO because Intesa holds a 5% stake in Prada while Unicredit not only was part of the pool of banks which restructured the group's debt, but also granted Prada a 200-million-euro medium-term loan.
Financial sources have put Prada's value at between five and six billion euros.
Prada shelved plans to go public three times in 2001 and 2002 because the situations in either the stock market or the luxury fashion sector were poor.
Sector sources believe Prada wants go public in order to reduce its debt and finance its expansion.
Over the past year or so it has improved its financial situation and seen an upturn in business.
Two years ago Prada restructured 700 million euros of debt and since then has reduced this through the sale of its loss-making labels Jil Sander and Helmut Lang, together with a 45% stake in the quality British shoemaker Church's.
Prada produces clothes and accessories under its own name as well as the trendy Miu Miu label.
Prada's financial woes began when it went on a buying spree in the 1990s and failed to turn around loss-making acquisitions which, aside from Jil Sander and Helmut Lang, included a stake in the Rome-based fashion house Fendi.
