Dive Brief:

• Upscale department store Neiman Marcus, which in addition to 43 stores flagship stores, owns the Bergdorf Goodman brand, online shopping site Mytheresa, and Last Call discount stores,  Tuesday filed plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of shares.

• The more than 100-year-old retailer made similar moves just under two years ago, before it was acquired by global assets managers Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $6 billion.

• The retailer says it will use money raised for the IPO, which for now includes just placeholder price offering of $100 million, and has named no banks or a stock exchange, to pay down debt, grow internationally, online, and on mobile, and to work with new designers. The company also plans renovations to half of its stores. Neiman Marcus will debut two locations in New York City to join the two Bergdorf Goodmans there.

Dive Insight:

Like many luxury retailers, Neiman Marcus has mostly escaped the struggles of more mainstream and discount retailers, which have been buffeted by an on-again, off-again economy and by extremely cautious middle- and lower-income consumers.

And, with its European Mytheresa online site and Last Call stores, the company is quite diversified. The company has reported 22 straight quarters of same-store sales growth at an average 6% and last year reported $4.8 billion in revenue.

But the company has also been somewhat insulated, not just by its luxury consumer, but also by private ownership. Publicly traded companies are often under pressure to show short-term results even at times when a longer view is necessary. The retailer hasn’t sold shares publicly for a decade.

Neiman Marcus, unlike some luxury retailers, has been smart about e-commerce. But luxury retailers are increasingly moving online these days, after some reluctance, so it will face more competition there. And it remains to be seen how it can compete with a formidable and growing online retailer Net-a-Porter, which since its merger with Yoox has reported record sales.

Net-a-Porter has increasingly come to define online luxury retail, with rich content as well as exclusive deals with the likes of Chanel and Tom Ford.