Italy's Twin-Set may get share listing by 2016

MILAN, Italy - Italian women's clothing brand Twin-Set may list its shares by early 2016, an official from its main shareholder, U.S. private equity firm Carlyle, said on Monday.

"A listing is without doubt a possibility," Marco De Benedetti, head of Carlyle in Italy and co-head in Europe, said on the sidelines of a conference in Milan.

"It is not going to happen imminently. I think the horizon is around the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016. We are busy with the challenge of expanding internationally, we are pushing to grow," he said.

Carlyle bought a 70 percent stake in holding company Light Force, which owns Twin-Set, in June 2012. A source close to the matter said at the time the deal gave the brand an enterprise value of 300 million euros ($413 million), or 7.5 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

Revenue for the label founded by Tiziano Sgarbi and Simona Barbieri rose 20 percent in 2013 from 140 million euros ($193 million) in the previous year, Sgarbi said in a recent interview.