Brazilian cosmetics company announces IPO
on an international roadshow for potential investors following its
announcement of the first public offering in Brazil in more than
two years, writes Louise Sheridan.
Natura started out in a small shop in Sao Paulo in 1969. Like British natural beauty products retailer The Body Shop International, Natura uses natural ingredients grown in an ethical and sustainable way to make cosmetics, perfumes, deodorants and health products.
Over the next three weeks Natura representatives will spend a week in Brazil, a week in Europe and the final week in the US. The roadshow is taking place in the run up to the pricing of the voting shares, representing up to 20 per cent of the company's capital, around May 25. The shares should start trading on the Novo Mercado, or New Market, of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, which is known as Bovespa, the day after pricing.
The last company to go public in Brazil was toll road administrator Companhia de Concessoes Rodoviarias (CCR), in February 2002. CCR was also the first company to list on the Novo Mercado, the other company being Sao Paulo state water utility Sabesp, which migrated to the bourse in April 2002. The new bourse aims to attract investors by only allowing companies to issue voting stock and by demanding higher standards of transparency, but it has so far only attracted two companies.
In a statement, Natura, which has annual sales of more than one billion reais (€0.28 m) and operations in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia, said it would sell 16.4 million shares, or 19.7 percent of its capital, in a public offering. It could sell an additional 2.5 million shares, or 2.95 percent of its capital, if the demand was there, it said. Natura said the price of the shares would be dictated by demand. The operation is being led by UBS Investment Bank with support from Banco Pactual and Banco Itau BBA.
A press spokeswoman for Natura said the company and banks involved were forbidden from commenting on the operation beyond what was in the share offer statement.
A handful of Brazilian companies have been studying whether to go public this year in what could be a vote of confidence in the market and the economic policies of the centre-left government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
