Italian cosmetic retail chain Kiko placed a 130 million euros bond in private placement at the beginning of November. The bond matures in 6 years,  pays a 6.5% coupon and had been subscribed by two institutional investors. One of them is said to be Assicurazioni Generali, MF-Milano Finanza wrote last Saturday 29 November. Ubs and White Case advised the company on the deal.
Proceedings from the bond will be partly used to finance international growth of Kiko’s business (above all in the US) and partly use to refinance some creadit lines of a150 million euros facility issued last year to Kiko by five banks (Banca Imi, Mediobanca, Bnl, Unicredit and Société Générale).
Founded in 1997 by Italian entrepreneur Antonio Percassi, Kiko is growing very fast both as for number of shops and for number of products:  the company will run 656 shops at the end of 2014 and sells 1.500 products with Kiko brand. In Summer 2012 Kiko bought Medina cosmetic brand from Italian company Intercos. Kiko invests an average of 50 million euros per year in order to finance such a fast growth. The company is going to close year 2014 with revenues of 480 million euros (from 418 millions in 2013) with a 20% ebitda margin (ebitda was 85 millions in 2013). Kiko is said to target listing on the Italian Stock Exchange in two years’ time.
