[Weekend Money] "Mardi Mercredi Goes Global"...K-Fashion Leader Sets Sights on Expansion

Overseas Sales Surge in Three Years... Benefiting from K-Fashion's Global Expansion

Aiming for Medium- to Long-Term Growth with Multi-Brand and Lifestyle Strategy

Peacepiece Studio, which has grown based on domestic women's contemporary brands, is pushing for an initial public offering (IPO) with a focus on expanding into overseas markets and a multi-brand strategy. The company is benefiting from the globalization of K-fashion, especially as its flagship brand, Mardi Mercredi, is gaining recognition in Japan and Greater China.

Established in 2020, Peacepiece Studio is a fashion company that operates a range of contemporary lifestyle brands, with designer label Mardi Mercredi at its core. Building on its women's line, the company has also launched the athleisure brand actif, the kids' line Les Petits, and the shoe line Les Pompes. In addition, it is nurturing new brands such as VACANT Archive and Hello Sunrise by its subsidiary Walls.

The company's core competitive strength lies in its brand intellectual property (IP). Mardi Mercredi has rapidly expanded its presence among young consumers thanks to its distinctive design and logo play. With global interest in K-fashion rising, brand awareness is also increasing overseas.

Park Jongseon, a researcher at Eugene Investment & Securities, commented, "As global interest in K-fashion grows, the company is seeing rising brand recognition overseas based on its unique fashion brand, Mardi Mercredi."

The company’s overseas business has shown steep growth. Peacepiece Studio’s overseas sales grew from 1.1 billion won in 2022 to 125 billion won last year, representing an average annual growth rate of 385%. Currently, overseas sales account for 24.4% of total revenue. By country, Japan represents 11.7%, while Southeast Asia and Greater China together account for 11.4%. After establishing a brand fandom in the Japanese market, the company is also ramping up efforts in Greater China.

The company continues to see stable growth in the domestic market as well. As of last year, apparel accounted for 89.2% of sales by product category, followed by accessories at 9.9% and others at 1.0%. By sales channel, the company’s own online mall held the highest share at 45.5%, followed by external channels at 27.4% and directly operated stores at 14.4%.

In particular, the company is rapidly shifting from a sales structure centered on external platforms to a direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy focused on its own online store. This is seen as enhancing brand control while also positively affecting profitability.

Researcher Park noted, "By shifting from external platforms to a D2C structure centered on its own online mall, the company is increasing the share of direct sales, which is positive in terms of profitability."

With this IPO, Peacepiece Studio also plans to accelerate its medium- to long-term growth strategy. The company aims to expand beyond a simple apparel brand to become a lifestyle company. To this end, it intends to diversify materials, broaden its product lineup, and actively expand into lifestyle categories.

In addition to developing its own brands, the company also pursues a multi-brand strategy through the acquisition of external IPs. The market expects that such a strategy will help mitigate the risks associated with ever-changing trends in the fashion industry.

The company will also pursue a more aggressive overseas expansion strategy, particularly by strengthening its presence in China through a direct market entry approach. Peacepiece Studio has set a goal of achieving 100 billion won in sales in the Chinese market by 2028.

The capital raised through this IPO will also be focused on growth investment. Of the approximately 39.3 billion won to be raised, 11.8 billion won will be allocated to facilities investment and 15 billion won to working capital. An additional 10 billion won is earmarked for acquiring securities of other corporations, which will be used to secure new brands and expand business operations.

However, the volume of shares available for trading after listing remains a variable. Shares subject to a lock-up agreement after listing total approximately 8.42 million, or 59.39% of the total. By contrast, immediately tradable shares account for about 5.76 million, or 40.61% of the total. Based on the upper end of the offering price, the value of shares available for trading is approximately 123.8 billion won.

Meanwhile, Peacepiece Studio’s IPO price range has been set between 19,000 won and 21,500 won. Based on last year’s net profit, the company calculated its corporate value by applying an earnings per share (EPS) of 1,159 won and the average price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of 21.5 times for comparable domestic and overseas companies such as AU Brands and Gamsung Corporation. After applying a discount rate of 13.7% to 23.7%, the final offering price was determined.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.