Buoyant debut for Marchpole

Marchpole Holdings, which designs, sources and distributes menswear and boyswear under licence from Yves Saint Laurent Couture SA, celebrated its first day on the stock market with the news that it has been awarded a licence to supply YSL casualwear to an existing YSL licensee in Japan.

Under the terms of the five-year licence, Marchpole will supply its casualwear ranges to guaranteed minimum purchase volumes and all royalties will be paid by the existing Japanese licensee. Marchpole's only investment is in the advertising and marketing of the product. The group's shares reached 123.5p each by the close of trade, up 13.5p - or 12 per cent on the 110p share placing price.