After "Independence", Can Vimy Return To Its Peak?

Victoria Secret was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, us time, with the stock code of "vsco". Its share price rose 2.52% to US $44.79, and closed at US $45.99, up 2.68%. It is understood that "Victoria's Secret lingerie", underwear brand pink and Victoria's Secret Beauty will be responsible for the related business.

In addition, after Weimi's independent listing, l brands group will also be renamed Bath & Body Works with the new stock code of "bbwi".

In recent years, Weimi's performance has been at a low ebb for a long time, and l brands group plans to divest this "burden" for many times. As early as March 2019, it was reported that l brands was very likely to spin off its security business. In February 2020, foreign media reported that l brands would sell its well-known underwear brand "Weimi", specifically for private equity company sycamore partners to acquire 55% shares of Weimi and privatize it; L brands retains another 45% stake, including Vimy's pink product line. At that time, Vimy was valued at about $1.1 billion.

However, the outside world was not optimistic about the deal at that time. As expected, sycamore partners filed an application to the court in late April, hoping to terminate the acquisition of Weimi's equity. The reason was that l brands had closed most of its stores since late February, violating the agreement. In the end, both sides agreed to cancel the deal, and the matter of "selling one's body" for the moment came to an end.

Since February this year, rumors of "selling out" of the company have resurfaced. Foreign media said that l brands is negotiating with potential buyers to complete the divestiture by August. The sale of L brands has given a valuation of up to $2 billion. However, unexpectedly, on May 11, l brands suddenly announced plans to split Victoria's Secret Beauty, pink (collectively referred to as Victoria's secret) and Bath & Body Works as two listed companies. On June 21, l brands formally submitted an application to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for independent listing of Vimy. According to analysts' estimation, the latest valuation of Victoria's Secret Beauty, pink (collectively referred to as Victoria's secret) and Bath & Body Works is about $5 billion.

It is understood that l brands eventually gave up selling Weimi and went public separately, or because the company's performance is improving continuously. In the first quarter ending May 1, sales of Weimi rose 73.9% year-on-year to 1.554 billion U.S. dollars, of which international income covering China rose 39.4% to 100 million US dollars; Compared with 2019, vimecoby's sales increased by 9%. Based on the earnings forecast released before, Vimy's second quarter revenue also rose 76% to $1.1 billion.

At present, Weimi's previous series of transformation measures began to work. In the past two years, Vimy has launched a number of initiatives, including the use of deformable models and large models, hoping to remove the "sexy" label on her body. Recently, in the Fifth Avenue store in New York, which has been reopened recently, Vimy has replaced the black-and-white photos of "Victoria angel" models on the walls, and placed large models in the core position of the store.

According to the analysis of "interface news", Weimi's independent listing means that the company retains the original brand gene to a great extent, and at the same time, it can customize the brand image transformation and business development strategy for the brand according to the current market environment and the evolution of the purchase preference of target consumers.