Belle International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1880) is the No. 1 woman's shoe retailer in the People's Republic of China, with 22% domestic market share.It is engaged in the manufacturing, distribution and retail sales of footwear products. It offers a number of brand names on its footwear business, including Belle, Staccato, Teenmix, Tata, Fato, JipiJapa, Joy & Peace and Bata.
As of its IPO in May 2007, the company had a retail network comprising
3,828 retail outlets in 150 cities in China and a network of 35 retail
outlets in Hong Kong, Macau and the US. In September 2008, Belle was named No. 8 in the BusinessWeek Asia 50, Businessweek's annual ranking of top Asian companies.Belle's founder and chairman, Deng Yao, started Lai Wah Footwear Trading Ltd. in 1981 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. He started Belle International in 1991 as a shoe wholesale manufacturer, and the company only expanded into retail in 2004. It attracted private equity investors including Morgan Stanley and domestic Chinese private equity manager CDH. In May 2007 Belle raised $1.1 billion in an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The offering was priced at the top of the range, at 31 times estimated
2007 earnings, after retail investors ordered more than 500 times the
shares initially earmarked for them.According to the IPO prospectus, an investment company linked to Groupe Arnault, parent of French luxury goods group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, purchased $30 million worth of shares as a strategic corporate investor.
Belle raised an additional $775 million in two secondary listings in
November 2007 and April 2008, which it used to buy several competing
brands.
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