Global Fashion Group starts trading after IPO, announces new Supervisory Board

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 2, 2019

Interest in the global fashion Group IPO may have been disappointingly lower than hoped for, but the company has now begun trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange and the true test of its appeal begins now.

The company, which is a major online fashion retailer in 17 countries across Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Commonwealth of Independent States, sees its shares listed in the Prime Standard under the trading symbol GFG.

Co-CEOs Christoph Barchewitz and Patrick Schmidt said: “It is still very early days for fashion e-commerce in our markets. We are building the #1 fashion and lifestyle destination in Asia Pacific, Latin America and CIS. Going public secures us funding to invest into our platform and infrastructure and in turn, benefit from the tremendous growth opportunities in our markets.”

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And they added that as part of becoming a public company, it has set up a new Supervisory Board comprising existing and new directors “whose combined wealth of experience in fashion, e-commerce and growth markets will support us on our journey.”  
 
The new board comprises “a global and diverse set of individuals with a balanced mix of experience in fashion, e-commerce and growth markets.” It consists of existing members Cynthia Gordon (who is the firm’s Chair), Georgi Ganev, Alexis Babeau and former Guess CEO Victor Herrero, as well as new members, Carol Shen and Laura Weil.  
 
Shen’s previous experience includes her role as MD of the Estée Lauder Companies affiliate in China and President of Gucci China. Meanwhile, Weil has been VP of Finance at Macy’s, Executive VP of American Eagle Outfitters, and CEO at Ashley Stewart.    

The IPO means that GFG’s net cash of €178 million at the end of Q1 and the gross proceeds of €198 million (assuming exercise of the greenshoe option in full), make it “well-funded to invest in its growth strategy, further strengthen the end-to-end customer proposition, and continue its path to profitability.”

The relatively lukewarm reaction to the IPO is perhaps unsurprising given how challenged the fashion retail market is globally at present. This has been having a depressive effect on some retailer and e-tailer shares and investors could be taking a wait and see approach before moving in.