Oct 2 Reuters Birkenstock, the German premium footwear brand backed by privateequity firm L Catterton, said on Monday it is seeking a valuation of up to 9.2 billion in its highly anticipated U.S. initial public offering IPO.

The company and its stockholders are expecting to sell at least 32 million shares, likely to be priced between 44 and 49 apiece, and potentially raise about 1.58 billion at the topend of the range, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The IPO market is seeing a slow revival in activity after being on ice for a couple of years, but the postdebut performances of companies that have listed so far this year including Instacart and Arm have been mixed.

The market is also expected to see more action in the coming days as the U.S. securities regulator is wellstaffed now that a government shutdown has been averted, allowing it to review more IPO filings.

Investor sentiment is still highly sensitive, particularly given the realisation that high interest rates are set to linger. So, despite the heady ambitions, Birkenstock may still end up listing at a mid or lower price in the range, regardless of all the publicity, said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown.

Birkenstock has decided to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol 39;BIRK39;.

Financière Agache, controlled by Europe39;s Arnault family that owns LVMH, has indicated an interest in buying 325 million…