Prada’s less-than-stellar results are prompting investors to reconsider the robustness of the Asian market.
"Market volatility and Prada’s high valuation hurt demand," Castor Pang, head of research at Hong Kong-based brokerage Core-Pacific Yamaichi International told Bloomberg. "Even after the low pricing, Prada’s stock still looks much more expensive than peers like LVMH."
The luxury maker of the Miu Miu fashion house planned to raise up to $2.6 billion. Prada will actually commence trading on June 24.
Last week, Alfred Chan, chief dealer at Cheer Pearl Investments, told Reuters: "We received little demand from our [retail] clients for the [Prada] shares. It might be the 12.5pc (US$0.002) tax that scared them away, and the pricing itself was expensive when it compared with its peers."
Prada’s shares are estimated to be around HK$39.50 to HK$42.25 each. That compares with a range of HK$36.50 to HK$48 (US$5.07 to US$6.16) earlier, according to the IPO prospectus.
To celebrate the initial public offering (IPO) Prada invited leading fund managers to the five star Grand Hyatt to view Prada’s latest designs.
The Milan-based Prada was established in 1913, by Mario Prada who targeted upper society and sold leather bags. Currently there are 319 stores that are directly operated by the international fashion house and around 30 percent of the outlets are in Asia Pacific.
The listing of Prada involved Goldman Sachs, Credit Agricole’s CLSA brokerage, and Italian banks UniCredit SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo’s Banca IMI unit, both of which have places on Prada’s board, according to Reuters.
Samsonite International SA, the world’s largest branded luggage maker, also failed to meet expectations in its IPO in Hong Kong. The Mansfield, Mass.-based company was able to raise $1.25 billion recently, although shares dropped up to 10 percent at the start of trading last Thursday.
Another factor that may have contributed to the lull in the market could be Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index, which has been on a downward trend in 11 of the last 12 sessions, deteriorating 7.6 percent.
