PRADA GOES PUBLIC?

Prada SpA, the Italian fashion label that makes Miu Miu bags and Church's shoes, hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and UniCredit SpA to arrange an initial public offering planned for next year.


PRADA Womens footwear. Available at YOOX.COM


The proposed listing will depend on ``market conditions,'' the Milan-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. Law firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo will act as legal adviser.

An IPO may value Prada at about 5 billion euros ($7.2 billion) and would be the biggest in the luxury goods industry, a person familiar with the plan said last month. Prada, which has scrapped three listing attempts this decade, is focusing on Miu Miu, Church's and its namesake brand after selling the unprofitable Jil Sander and Helmut Lang labels. Read more

The 12 days of Christmas

Back in 1984, as a lark, PNC created the “Christmas Price Index,” which took “The Twelve Days of Christmas” song and calculated the amount it would cost someone to purchase the items for their True Loves.

As it turns out, the Christmas Price Index frequently mirrors that other, more famous CPI, the Consumer Price Index.

This year if you wish to buy your True Love the items in the song, it will cost $19,501, up 3% over last year and in line with the overall increase in the CPI of 3.5%.

Among the items driving up the index:
• Gold Rings are up 21.5%

• Geese are up 20%

• And, because of the increase in the federal minimum wage, milkmaid labor costs have increased 13.6%

All kidding aside, PNC’s Christmas Price Index is an excellent way to see how much inflation – even in small annual increments – can erode purchasing power over time. When the index began, buying your True Love the goods and services from “The Twelve Days of Christmas” would have cost $12,371.