Ronald Friedman, Co-Leader, Retail/Consumer Products Industry Group, Quoted in WWD.com Article "Michael Kors: Wall Street's Newest Player"
WWD.com
By Lisa Lockwood
Excerpt:
In the article, Mr. Friedman said, “The next few weeks will tell whether the price will hold or not.” He said it’s a difficult equities market and growth rates will be “very hard to maintain. I don’t think apparel stocks overall do that great at these multiples.”
Mr. Friedman believes Kors will expand his European and Asian business, will sign more licensees and will continue to grow, “but I don’t think the shareholders will get the reward they expect. They always try to price it as high as the market will bear. We’re in a recession, and everyone’s skeptical of the stock market. It’s been very lateral for the last couple of months. I think a lot of people are sitting on the sidelines and not investing in the market.”
“Is it a good time to go public? It’s probably as good a time as any in this environment. I think there’ll be some push-back in getting a higher price,” said Mr. Friedman. He said stocks such as Google and Apple, and next year, Facebook, explode when they go public. “That doesn’t happen with apparel stocks,” said Mr. Friedman. “When an apparel stock gets to be like Apple, then the world is upside down.”
