Italian luxury goods maker Prada is due on Friday to set the price range for its $2 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong.
Here are some facts about Prada's business history:
GLOBAL REACH
* Founded almost a century ago, Prada is run by designer Miuccia Prada and her chief executive husband Patrizio Bertelli.
Prada, which also owns Miu Miu, Church's and Car Shoe brands, plans to open about 80 stores annually over the next three years, 30 of them in Asia. It had 319 stores globally at Jan. 31, 2011.
Prada reported record sales of 2.1 billion euros ($3.02 billion) in 2010 and core earnings of 536 million euros.
Europe is its biggest market, accounting for 42 percent of sales, while Greater China and the rest of Asia-Pacific together account for 40 percent. Asia is its fastest-growing market.
FAMILY OWNERSHIP
* Miuccia Prada, her brother Alberto and sister Marina indirectly own 65 percent of Amsterdam-based Prada Holding BV. Bertelli's Luxembourg-based holding company Pa.Be owns the rest.
Prada Holding owns 94.887 percent of the fashion company Prada SpA. Six years ago Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo bought the remaining 5.113 percent stake for 100 million euros.
Bertelli has transferred half his stake in Pa.Be. to three companies for succession purposes.
ASIA FACTOR
* Prada has debts of more than 1 billion euros -- partly due to a buying spree during the 1990s -- while its net profit more than doubled to 251 million euros in the 2010/11 year ended Jan. 31, helped by its retail network expansion and growth in Asia. Prada expects its Asian sales to overtake those in Europe over the next three years.
It plans to open design centres in Hong Kong and Paris this year.
HONG KONG IPO
* Prada has been considering an IPO for a decade. First planned for the Milan bourse, the offering is now to take place in Hong Kong, which accounted for about a fifth of global IPOs last year. The offering could value Prada at around 8 billion euros and allow it to draw Asian investors.
Hong Kong bourse guidelines would require management changes, including two executive administrators based in Hong Kong and three independent administrators.
Prada's IPO is slated to be priced on June 17, with listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange set for June 24. The roadshow starts on June 6.
Goldman Sachs, Credit Agricole's CLSA brokerage and Italian banks UniCredit SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo's Banca IMI unit, both on Prada's board, were picked as joint bookrunners and global coordinators of the IPO.
Prada has turned down approaches by private equity firms.
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