GRAFF DIAMONDS will market shares for its $1 billion (€786 million) listing in Hong Kong in a range of HK$25-HK$37, people familiar with the process said yesterday.
The listing will value the ultra-high-end jewellery producer and retailer at $3 billion-$4 billion, while its founder and controlling shareholder Laurence Graff will take a windfall of $290 million from a reorganisation of the group’s assets.
Mr Graff, who grew up in London’s East End, will sell some businesses and stone collections into the larger group as part of its consolidation into a new, coherent company.
However, he will also buy back non-core assets such as a South-African vineyard and luxury estate and a number of paintings valued collectively at $8.2 million, which include Portrait of Cézanne by Camille Pissarro, which is on loan at the National Gallery in London.
Mr Graff’s initial public offering (IPO) comes during a relatively barren spell for the Hong Kong IPO market, which had been the leading stock market for new listings for the past three years.– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012)
