On Sept. 14, Brilliant Earth launched its initial public offering, in which it hopes to raise over $200 million.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filing said the San Francisco–based e-tailer’s stock will be traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “BRLT.”
The IPO will offer for sale 16,666,667 shares of Class A common stock, priced between $14 and $16 a share. If the share price comes in at the midpoint of that range—$15—the company will raise somewhere between $229.4 million and $263.8 million, depending on whether its underwriters exercise their full option to purchase additional Common A shares.
The overall IPO values the company at around $1.45 billion, says analyst Paul Zimnisky, who considers that a pretty good multiple: almost 5.75 times Brilliant Earth’s 2020 sales of $251 million. That tops the multiples garnered by two competing e-tailers that were sold in the last five years.
In 2016, when Bain Capital and Bow Street bought Blue Nile for $500 million, the e-tailer’s annual sales guidance was $465 million to $495 million, meaning the company was purchased at a 1.04 multiple relative to sales. When Signet Jewelers bought James Allen for $328 million in 2017, that site was generating $200 million in annual revenue, so the price comes out to about 1.64 times its annual sales.
But Brilliant Earth got a higher multiple in part for its strong growth rate, Zimnisky says—it has shown 32% compound annual growth since 2016.
“It also shows how generous the current market is due to all the stimulus and supereasy monetary policy,” he adds.
About 2% of Brilliant Earth’s Class A common shares will be offered to retail investors through Robinhood and its online brokerage platform.
Brilliant Earth first publicly announced its intention to file for an IPO earlier this month.
It now joins a small group of jewelry companies that have gone public; with the current IPO boom, observers expect there could be more.
Top: A Brilliant Earth showroom (photo courtesy of Brilliant Earth)
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