Samsonite mandates five banks for Hong Kong IPO

Samsonite, the luggage manufacturer known for its hard suitcases, has mandated Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS for its planned initial public offering in Hong Kong, sources said yesterday. The company hasn’t confirmed the targeted deal size, but the sources said the offering is expected to raise about $1 billion.

Given that the process is now underway, the IPO could possibly come towards the end of the second quarter, but a less aggressive estimate is that the company will wait until the second half. The arrangers were selected following a beauty parade last week that, according to a source, saw at least 10 banks pitch for the mandate.

US-headquartered Samsonite has had several different owners since it was founded in 1910. It is currently owned by Luxembourg-based private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, which bought the company in July 2007 for $1.7 billion. RBS provided financing for the acquisition and when Samsonite had financial difficulties in 2009 the UK bank ended up swapping some of its debt into a minority equity stake.