A strong luxury market spurs the retailer to plan a public offering two years after a $6 billion sale.

(Bloomberg)—Neiman Marcus Group Inc., the century-old luxury department-store chain acquired two years ago in a $6 billion leveraged buyout, is already planning to go public.

The company, owned by Ares Management LLC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, filed with a $100 million placeholder, an amount used to calculate registration fees that may change. Dallas-based Neiman Marcus, No. 43 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to repay debt.

Consumer IPOs have raised almost $8.8 billion this year—more than any other industry. Lower unemployment and stronger buyer sentiment should help boost sales at department stores, as should a drop in cotton prices, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Poonam Goyal. Neiman is the eighth-largest U.S. department-store chain. Its 2014 online sales were an Internet Retailer-estimated $1.15 billion, according to Top500Guide.com data.

“They’re probably taking advantage of high equity prices, they’re probably getting rich valuations to go now,” said Goyal. “Luxury is strong because the high-end consumer is strong. The stock market is very strong, and that’s a big indicator for luxury sales.”

The company posted $4.8 billion in revenue last year, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. Total debt amounted to $4.7 billion as of May 2. Women account for 79% of its customer base, and 38% of its customers have a median household income greater than $200,000, the filing shows.

advertisement

Nordstrom, Saks

Neiman Marcus’s competitors include Nordstrom Inc. (No. 19 in the Top 500 Guide), Hudson’s Bay Co.’s Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylor chains (No. 97) as well as Macy’s Inc.’s Bloomingdale’s chain (No. 7). As mall traffic declines and shoppers look to online retailers for lower prices, retailers like Nordstrom have been using their discount chains to drive sales while investing in e-commerce.

Neiman Marcus was founded in Dallas 1907 by Herbert Marcus, his sister and her husband A.L. Neiman. Marcus bought out the Neimans in 1928, and the company was run by the family until 1988. It was publicly traded from 1987 to 2005. Neiman Marcus also owns the Bergdorf Goodman luxury stores and the offprice Last Call clearance centers.

The retailer previously filed to go public in June 2013, before owners TPG and Warburg Pincus sold it to Ares and CPPIB. In 2018, Neiman Marcus plans to debut in Manhattan at the $20 billion retail complex known as Shops at Hudson Yards.

advertisement

Neiman Marcus didn’t list any underwriters in the filing.

Favorite