SuitSupply CEO Fokke de Jong has bought out investment firm NPM Capital in a debt refinancing deal. The Dutch suit store chain is freeing up funds to open new shops.
Opportunity for growth
SuitSupply borrowed 250 million euros from a group of banks last month, Dutch newspaper FD reports. A part of that sum will be used to refinance old bank debts, the rest to buy out investor NPM, who had come on board in 2017 and invested almost 100 million euros in the company.
Insiders claim that the CEO did so to avoid NPM converting its stake into shares with voting rights, but according to the CEO himself, SuitSupply has only seized the opportunity to refinance its debts now that conditions are good. The retailer is profitable and banks appear willing to grant loans.
“We want to use the refinancing to open new shops and expand existing ones. We are not going into new countries, but there are still a lot of growth opportunities in many countries where we are already active”, de Jong told the newspaper. SuitSupply has 108 shops in 22 countries and achieved a net profit of 30 million euros on sales of 553 million last year.
