Breast enlargements excite stock market

The boom in plastic surgery has now hit the stock market, with Spanish group Corporacion Dermoestetica enjoying a perfectly shaped float on the Madrid Bolsa.

Buoyed by a local boom in breast implants, the company saw an 18.9 per cent rise in its share price on the first day of trading on Tuesday, closing the week 21 per cent up at €11.02 (£7.57).

In typically flamboyant fashion, Dermoestetica's chairman, Jose Maria Suescan, brought 50 models dressed as nurses on to the Bolsa's floor for the launch.

The Spanish are "the biggest consumers in Europe of breast enlargement surgery", he said, but added: "Many of our customers come from Britain."

Dermoestetica recently paid £29m for Ultralase, a British company that runs eye clinics offering laser treatment. It aims to have 95 clinics in Spain, Britain, Italy and Portugal by the end of the year.

Mr Suescan, 53, who remains the majority shareholder with 50.1 per cent, said: "Last year, we performed 45,000 operations, 31,500 of which were breast implant surgery, liposuction or reparatory surgery of some kind.

"Typically, our clients will be aged 32 or 33, often middle class, with children, working, and financially independent."

Breast enlargement surgery can cost up to £4,200, while a liposuction procedure costs between £1,700 and £2,000.