The uber-trend toward casualization has extended to almost every American institution, making jeans of one sort or another welcome almost anywhere — from fancy restaurants to high-powered business meetings. Even Goldman Sachs recently moved to a “flexible dress code.”
The austere New York Stock Exchange, though, is one of the last holdouts with a strict no-jeans policy for its trading floor.
That policy will be tested severely when Levi, Strauss & Co. goes public, which could happen as soon as next week.
The IPO — Levi’s second — is expected to price the company’s 36.7 million Class A shares being offered at $14 to $16 apiece, valuing the firm at up to $6.17 billion. Levi’s is set to raise $151 million, while selling shareholders would raise $435 million.
Most of the selling shareholders are part of the Haas family, descendants of the founder Levi Strauss. At $16 a share, Mimi Haas — widow of former chief executive officer Peter E. Haas Sr. — has a stake valued at just over $1 billion. She plans to sell six million shares in the offering and will retain 56.9 million shares.
The Haas family will continue to control the company by virtue of its Class B shares, which
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