Italy's Golden Goose rules out IPO this year, sees limited impact from tariffs

MILAN (Reuters) -Italian luxury sneaker maker Golden Goose still sees a market listing as an excellent opportunity but rules out an initial public offering this year and is leaving the door open to M&A options, its CEO told Reuters on Wednesday.

"An IPO remains a very good opportunity", Chief Executive Officer Silvio Campara told Reuters in a phone interview, adding that at the moment market conditions do not make that possible.

The company, which private equity firm Permira bought in 2020, tried to list on the Milan bourse last year, but pulled the offering because of market volatility.

The company, which produces its 500 euros ($565) sneakers in Italy, sees a limited impact from U.S. tariffs.

"If you follow the first sale rule, tariffs are applied to production cost and not to the transfer price, so in our case the 20% tariffs will translate to a 4% impact", Campara said. He added that the U.S. represented roughly 40-45% of total revenue.

Within U.S. customs law, the first sale rule provides the possibility for companies to pay duties on the price paid at the original manufacturer, under certain conditions.

The U.S. has imposed a baseline 10% tariff on almost all countries, including Italy. It has lined up additional "reciprocal" tariffs if negotiations during a 90-day pause should fail.

Golden Goose reported a 12% rise in net revenues at constant exchange rates to 164.5 million euros in the first quarter, driven by a strong performance in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, it said earlier on Wednesday.

The company added it had opened three new stores during the quarter, with direct-to-consumer net revenues reaching 76% of total net revenues.

Earlier this year Blue Pool, a Hong Kong-based investment firm backed by Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, bought a 12% stake in Golden Goose.

($1 = 0.8828 euros)

(Reporting by Elisa Anzolin. Editing by Cristina Carlevaro and Mark Potter)