J.Crew Might Launch an IPO in 2014: Report

Fashion IPOs—shorthand for an “Initial Public Offering”—have been particularly buzzy over the past few years since Michael Kors’ IPO filing in 2011, which has since made the designer and his investors hundreds of millions of dollars. Since then, labels like Prada, Moncler, and most recently Vince have filed IPOs, and labels like Marc Jacobs have reportedly been considering such a move as well. Bottom line, IPOs are very much—ahem—a trend right now.

The latest player to reportedly be considering an IPO move is American retail powerhouse J.Crew, which, Bloomberg reports, is talking to banks about the prospect of an initial public offering later this year.

MORE: What’s a Fashion IPO, and Should You Invest? A Handy Guide

Considering J.Crew fetches a reported $2.4 billion in annual sales, the move certainly makes sense—and Bloomberg reports a J.Crew valuation could be as high as $5 billion—the move is interesting considering J.Crew actually was a public company before CEO Mickey Drexler decided to take it private just three years ago. TPG and Leonard Green bought the company out for a whopping $2.64 billion, but not before the company’s investors balked and actually sued Drexler. (J.Crew eventually settled the suit for $16 million.)

With a $5 billion offering in sight, though, that’d be nearly double what the $2.64 buy-out in 2011—which ain’t too shabby.

What do you think: Is J.Crew a $5 billion company?