This article was published on March 19, 2025, at 4:41 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
K-beauty brand "d'Alba," known for its "Mist Serum," is preparing to enter the public offering market with a valuation of up to 900 billion won. With over 50% revenue growth last year, it is expected to submit a securities report by the end of this month. While estimates of a valuation exceeding 1 trillion won have surfaced, it is projected to fall short of that figure.
According to the financial investment industry on the 19th, d'Alba Global, the operating company of d'Alba, is scheduled to submit a securities report to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 25th. It received approval for a preliminary listing review from the Korea Exchange’s KOSDAQ division in January, two months after the submission, but has delayed the report submission until recently. Mirae Asset Securities is the lead manager for the listing.
A source in the securities industry noted, "d'Alba Global launched new beauty device products in the third quarter of last year and opened food and beverage stores in the fourth quarter, accelerating its performance improvements. Based on the expected performance in 2024, it likely postponed the report submission to aim for a higher valuation for the listing."
In fact, d'Alba Global's performance significantly improved last year. In addition to a substantial increase in overseas sales, it generated new sales of 1.1 billion won solely from beauty devices, reporting consolidated sales of 309.1 billion won for the year. This represents a 53.9% increase compared to the previous year’s 200.8 billion won.
d'Alba Global is a K-beauty brand management company founded in March 2016 by CEO Ban Seong-yeon, a former consultant responsible for business strategy consulting for cosmetics companies. The "Mist Serum," known for being used by flight attendants in dry cabins, is the flagship product, and last year's operating profit was reported at 59.8 billion won.
After the listing, its valuation is expected to reach a maximum of 950 billion won. This assessment considers that the price-to-earnings ratio (PER) is mainly used for the corporate value assessment of cosmetics brand operating companies, and it is reported that Mirae Asset Securities is reviewing the application of a PER multiple of 20 times on an estimated net profit of about 50 billion won.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, d'Alba Global's net profit last year increased by 13.3% year-on-year to 15.4 billion won. However, the lead manager is expected to adjust the net profit by excluding a loss of approximately 33 billion won from derivative evaluation, which is deemed a numerical loss reflecting the change in the exercise price of convertible preferred shares.
Comparable companies have narrowed down to Amorepacific Corporation, APR, and MA:NYO. They are representative listed companies in K-beauty, with their average PER as of the end of last year reported at 22.7 times. When applying a discount rate of 17.6% to 30.6% based on the market capitalization valuation of listed KOSPI companies last year, valuations of 800 billion to 950 billion won are derived.
A source from the securities industry stated, "The delay in d'Alba Global's submission of the securities report has been attributed to improvements in last year's performance, leading to increased expectations in the market for a post-listing market capitalization exceeding 1 trillion won, although it is regrettable that it will fall short of that figure. However, it is a fact that the growth trend is remarkable."
Meanwhile, financial investors like venture capital firm Woori Venture Partners are poised for a lucrative "exit" (investment recovery). Notably, Woori Venture Partners invested 2 billion won in 2019 for a company valuation of 14 billion won. At a valuation of 900 billion won upon listing, they are expected to achieve more than 60 times the profit compared to the original investment.