Exit children’s fashion
Since two years the French company was having exclusive talks with Alpha Private Equitiy Fund 6, which had made a binding offer
on both brands. “The amount of the transaction was paid according to the
agreement between both parties”, PPR says, keeping its cards close. According
to insiders the fund paid 119 million euro for Cyrillus and Vertbaudet.
The sale fits PPR’s new strategy of shifting the focus of the company completely to luxury products and sports. They have already sold most of the activities of Redcats, such
as fashion brands for plus sizes (OneStopPlus.com, Woman Within, Roaman’s
Jessica London, Fullbeauty, KingSize, BrylaneHome and Bargain Catalog Outlet)
and the Scandinavian mail order activities of Ellos and Jotex.
Only La Redoute and Fnac left
The entire transformation, which started in
2006 with the sale of the luxury department stores Le Printemps, is almost coming
to an end. Two famous subsidiaries still have to get the boot: the sale of
French mail order- and e-commerce giant La Redoute starts in April, while Fnac
will go to the exchange on 19 June.
At the end of this year the entire operation
should be completed, they say in Paris. To lend weight to the transition, the
company is officially renaming itself to Kering in June.
