Levi Strauss IPO Prices Well Above Range For A $6.6 Billion Valuation

There’s a new, yet very old kid, on the trading block. Levi Strauss & Co, the 166-year-old jeans maker from San Francisco, said late Wednesday that shares in its initial public offering were priced at $17, above the $14 to $16 range the company had estimated in its updated prospectus last week. That gave Levi’s a $6.6 billion valuation as it prepares to return to the stock market on Thursday morning for its first day of trading since 1985. Levi Strauss, which invented its iconic blue jeans in 1873 with the use of rivets that strengthened the seams in denim work pants, was publicly traded from 1971 until 1984, when it was taken private. The shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which for the first time in its history is lifting its ban on blue jeans on the trading floor in honor of the IPO, with the ticker “LEVI.” Read more at Fortune.