Kurt Geiger is ending the year with another major acquisition deal.
Sycamore Partners has sold the British footwear giant to European private equity firm Cinven. The terms of the deal were not disclosed but the Financial Times in London, which broke news of the acquisition late Sunday, valued it at about $372 million, citing sources.
The deal marks Cinven’s first accessories buy. The FT said Kurt Geiger power duo Neil Clifford and Rebecca Farrar-Hockley would remain on board.
Cinven becomes Kurt Geiger’s third owner in four years. The company was sold to The Jones Group in 2011 for $350 million. Last year, Sycamore Partners acquired the firm as part of its acquisition of Jones, which had been struggling.
Sycamore immediately unloaded Stuart Weitzman, selling it to Coach for $574 million early this year. Speculation soon surfaced that Kurt Geiger, which operates the shoe departments at Harrods, Selfridges and Liberty, would be next.
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This fall, Jimmy Choo’s former owner, Lion Capital, was said to be looking at the business, but Cinven emerged as a likely contender about a month ago.
Clifford and Farrar-Hockley have been moving fast to build Kurt Geiger’s branded business in the past several years with rapid expansion into new categories. They are also growing online sales and boosting the children’s offering within their department store roster.
In another major move, Kurt Geiger partnered with Harrods on its huge Shoe Heaven floor, which opened last year.
Check back for more details on this developing story.
