The CVC Capital Partners Plc-backed company, which had planned to list its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Standard Market on Nov. 5, announced the withdrawal in a filing on Monday. The firm had planned to set its initial public offering price on Oct. 27 after setting an indicative price of ¥1,470 ($9.75) per share. Any future decision to resume its listing process will be based on market trends, it said in a separate statement.
Investors demanded valuation that didn’t meet the company’s expectations, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to be named discussing nonpublic information.
Finetoday’s board took into consideration shareholders’ interests and market conditions, and determined this wasn’t the right time for share sale, its representative said by phone.
Relative valuation for Finetoday shows a 14 percent premium over a group of peers including Kose Corp. and Shiseido Co., with enterprise value to Ebitda of 10.4 times, Arun George, an analyst at Global Equity Research Ltd. who publishes on Smartkarma, wrote in a note dated Oct. 13.
The Tokyo-based company in September started sounding out institutional investor demand for a possible global share sale after cancelling a previous attempt to go public last year. CVC Capital-linked shareholder Oriental Beauty Holding had planned to sell its stake, while Finetoday was considering issuing new shares to raise ¥18.7 billion.
By Yasutaka Tamura and Dave Sebastian
Japan’s largest beauty conglomerate has had a difficult time adjusting to the shifting cosmetics market, prompting a series of pivots and restructurings. Moving forward may require breaking with past mistakes.
