Shy start on the stock market for Groupe Dynamite

Group Dynamite shares fell 3% at the opening of markets Thursday in Toronto for the Montreal women’s clothing retailer’s debut on the stock market.

The title of the operator of the Garage and Dynamite brands quickly fell to $20.30 during the first minutes of the session before recovering a little.

Groupe Dynamite’s initial share price was set Wednesday evening at $21, right in the middle of the $19 to $23 range previously established to give investors an indication of the value sought for the initial public offering. savings.

The company listed on the stock exchange with an initial value of 2.3 billion and a stock trading under the symbol “GRGD”.

The initial public offering allows the company’s CEO, chairman and principal owner, Andrew Lutfy, to earn $300 million by selling shares.

Groupe Dynamite generated net profits of $128 million and revenues of $888 million for the 12 months ended in early August.

The company has 299 stores (185 in Canada and 114 in the United States) and a workforce of 6,000 employees, 70% of whom are part-time.

All stores are corporate – no franchisees – and management intends to continue development in the United States and even internationally, starting with England.

Andrew Lutfy is a Montreal businessman best known for his real estate project management and development company Carbonleo, developer of the Royalmount shopping center in Montreal.

He now controls approximately 87% of Groupe Dynamite’s shares and 98.5% of the voting rights.

This initial public offering is the first in Quebec since Coveo’s IPO three years ago.