ZEENAT MOORAD: Denim icon Levi Strauss goes public
Levi’s has become cool again. Last Thursday its shares opened at $22.20, giving the company a market value of $8.6bn
Stop washing your jeans. That’s not my suggestion, but one from Levi Strauss & Co CEO Chip Bergh. Reader, I can hear you. You’re thinking "eww". Bear with me. Spot cleaning is apparently the way to go if you want to maintain its design and prevent dullness. And for heaven’s sake, whatever you do, don’t put your jeans into a washing machine. "Worst-case I hand wash them. And I do it myself," Bergh said last week on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trading floor. For the second time in its 165-year history, the denim brand has gone public. In the past decade it has experienced a resurgence of sorts — Levi’s has become cool again. Last Thursday its shares opened at $22.20, giving the company a market value of $8.6bn. It closed its first day at $22.41 — 32% higher than its IPO price. It was only the second time traders had ever been given permission to wear denim on the NYSE floor. The first was in 2009, when they were outfitted in Gap jeans to commemorate the brand’s 40th anniversary...
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