LONDON — The luxury shoe company Jimmy Choo said on Tuesday that it planned to pursue an initial public offering of its shares later this year in London.
The British shoe brand is expected to sell at least 25 percent of the capital of its new holding company, Jimmy Choo Limited, in an offering that could value the company at about 700 million pounds, or about $1.1 billion. The listing is expected in October.
"Jimmy Choo is a clear success story with strong momentum, and I am confident that our future as a public company can only extend our reputation and position in this attractive sector," Pierre Denis, the Jimmy Choo chief executive, said in a news release.
The offering is expected to include a partial sale of the holdings of Joh A. Benckiser's JAB Luxury arm, which owns the brand.
The company posted sales of 281.5 million pounds, or about $459.9 million, in 2013 and plans to open 10 to 15 stores a year as part of its growth strategy. The company posted adjusted net income of £21 million last year.
The listing speaks to both the rising popularity of accessories among luxury consumers, and the increasing strength of the footwear market vis-a-vis other apparel segments.
In the last few years shoe floors in department stores everywhere have gone on a steroid-fueled diet, from Macy's 63,000 square feet in New York, to Harrod's 42,000 in London, by way of Lane Crawford in Hong Kong (30,000 square feet) and the Level Shoe District in Dubai, a 96,000-square-foot extravaganza of high-end shoes.
Two years ago Federico Marchetti, the founder and chief executive of the e-tailer Yoox, started an online shoe-only store called Shoescribe, in part, he said, because after tracking sales of footwear on Yoox he had discovered that shoes were his best-selling category by a long shot. They made up almost a quarter of his sales. Many of the shoe-buying consumers were buying only shoes, and that they exhibited highly recidivist behavior. Today, he says, the business is experiencing triple-digit growth.
An Oscar night staple, Jimmy Choo is popular among both the Hollywood elite, who love it for its red carpet appeal, and women such as Michelle Obama, who favor its lower height heels.
The brand was founded in 1996 by the shoemaker Jimmy Choo, who was making bespoke shoes in London's East End, and Tamara Mellon, Vogue's former accessories director. Mr. Choo's niece Sandra Choi joined the company as creative director.
Mr. Choo and Ms. Mellon have left the company, but Ms. Choi remains as creative director.
The brand opened its first store in London in 1996 and expanded to the United States two years later. The company has about 170 stores in 34 countries.
It has been popular on television and in movies, featuring in "Sex in the City" and "The Devil Wears Prada."
Jimmy Choo has passed through several private equity owners over the years.
The company was first acquired by Phoenix Equity Partners, which later invested in shoe brand LK Bennett, in 2001 and then passed to Lion Capital in 2004. Ms. Mellon and Towerbrook Capital Partners took control of the control in 2007.
The company was sold in 2011 to Labelux, a luxury goods company founded by the Reimann family, which owns Joh A. Benckiser. Earlier this year, Joh A. Benckiser restructured its luxury arm, putting the Jimmy Choo and Belstaff brands under its direct control.
Merrill Lynch and HSBC are acting as underwriters on the offering.
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