On May 3, teen jewelry chain Claire’s filed for an initial public offering worth as much as $100 million.
The filing calls the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company “the world’s leading specialty retailer of fashionable jewelry and accessories for young women, teens, tweens, and kids,” with 3,477 stores and franchises in the United States and 40 other countries.
Clarie’s is currently controlled by Apollo Management, which purchased it in May 2007. Among the company’s directors is former Zale CEO Robert DiNicola.
Claire’s stores number 2,705 company-operated stores and 392 franchises. Its new brand, Icing, which targets 21- to 25-year-old women who have just entered the workforce, counts 380 stores. The company plans to open 35 Icing stores in the next fiscal year.
Overall net sales for fiscal 2012 were $1.5 billion. The company’s same-store growth was 1.8 percent in fiscal 2012, and it has reported rising comps in 10 of the past 13 quarters, the filing said. Approximately 95 percent of its stores are cash flow positive, according to the filing.
The IPO does warn that the company is “significantly leveraged,” with net debt of $2.3 billion, the result of the Apollo purchase. IPO proceeds will go to pay off the company’s debt.
The company plans to be listed under the symbol CLRS. Click here for Claire’s IPO filing.
Last June, Claire’s appointed former Disney Stores head James D. Fielding as its CEO.
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