MICHAEL KORS' initial public offering this week is set to value the New Yorker's label at more than three and a half billion dollars - meaning a sale could net him a personal fortune of more than $111 million.

The sale marks the next step in Kors' incredible 30-year rags-to-riches tale, after taking on new investors when he reached bankruptcy early Nineties - and market insiders are confident that the price tag is in no way unreasonable.

"It's a marvellously successful company, and I think an IPO will be very successful," Laurence Leeds, chairman of Buckingham Capital Management, said. "They're putting a high valuation on the company and it deserves a high valuation. The company is very well run, is extremely successful, has a splendid track record and excellent management." 

But the sale won't mean a departure for Kors: the designer has a contract which means he will be employed by the firm until his death, he becomes disabled or he is dismissed "for cause" - and dictates that Kors "shall have creative and aesthetic control of the products produced and sold under or bearing the 'Michael Kors' and related trademarks, including exclusive control of the design of such products, provided that the exercise of such control must be commercially reasonable". The contract is reported to include a minimum salary of $2.5 million for life for Kors, WWD reports, plus bonus and other perks, such as a car and driver and health club membership.

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