Damas to follow Dubai IPO with Italy listing

Damas has bought four Italian jewellers over the past three years.

Dubai jewellery group Damas, which is preparing for a bourse listing at home, may also list shares in its Italian unit DIT in the next three or four years, Damas managing director Tawhid Abdullah said on Tuesday.

Family-controlled Damas Jewellery hopes to list its shares on the Dubai International Financial Exchange by April, after publication of its annual results, he told Reuters on the sidelines of a jewellery conference.

"DIT may be listed in three, four years, when we are bigger in size... I think when we have at least 100 million euros ($145.4 million) in sales," Abdullah said.

DIT controls four Italian jewellers - Stefan Hafner, Io Si, Roberta Porrati and La Nouvelle Bague - that Damas Jewellery has bought over the past three years.

Abdullah said he expected DIT to boost sales to 100 million euros in the next three years from a targeted 40 million euros this year, possibly by buying a couple of high-end Italian jewellers.

Only one Italian jeweller, Bulgari, is listed. This week's market debut of fellow high-end jeweller Damiani may prompt other jewellers to brave the stock market, analysts have said.

Gioielli Italia, a jewellery division created by Italy's Mariella Burani Fashion Group over the past year, could eventually be among them.

Giovanni Burani, the fashion group's chief executive, said on Tuesday it would take another two or three years to prepare Gioielli Italia for the initial public offering (IPO). (Reuters)

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