St. Laurent Stock Offering Halted; It’s Too Fashionable

The flotation of shares in French fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent was postponed Thursday after so many would-be investors rushed to buy a stake that the offering was oversubscribed.

The shares offered in Groupe Yves Saint Laurent, the first French fashion house to seek a stock exchange listing, were more than 250 times oversubscribed, broker Francois Dufour-Kervern said.

The issue, representing slightly more than 10% of YSL’s share capital, was rescheduled for Monday.

The offer price of $133 would remain, but investors would be required to place deposits equal to the number of shares requested to prevent speculative bids, Dufour-Kervern said.

“A lot of people have put in for 100 times what they wanted, and there will be a lot of withdrawals next week,” one British analyst predicted.

But Thursday’s enthusiastic reception was a good start for company Chairman Pierre Berge’s decidedly cautious venture on the Bourse, carefully publicized beforehand with full page advertisements in French and international newspapers.