German perfume and cosmetics retail chain Douglas made its return to the public markets on Thursday with its shares again traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Top Douglas executives Sander van der Laan and Mark Langer rang the traditional opening bell at the Frankfurt exchange on Thursday morning to cheers from Douglas employees.
Shares in Douglas, listed under BEAU7Y, an allusion to “beauty,” began trading on Thursday morning slightly below the issue price of €26 ($28) and fell further to €23.14 by midday, down 11%.
Douglas, a long-time fixture on the shopping streets of cities across Germany, traces its roots to a soap factory founded in 1821 by the Scottish immigrant John Sharp Douglas in Hamburg.
The first Douglas perfumery opened in 1890 on Hamburg’s fashionable Jungfernstieg street.
It is now Germany’s largest perfumery chain, with around 18,000 employees, and operates 1,850 stores in 22 countries across Europe.
The company…
