Labelux Buys Jimmy Choo for $812 Million
Upscale British shoemaker and retailer Jimmy Choo was bought by luxury goods group Labelux from TowerBrook Capital Partners LP, the companies said on Sunday.
The companies did not disclose terms of the deal, but two sources familiar with the deal said it was worth about £500 million ($812 million).
Vienna-based Labelux, whose other investments include shoemaker Bally, said Jimmy Choo's co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Tamara Mellon and Chief Executive Officer Joshua Schulman would stay on in their current jobs. Mellon will take a stake in the subsidiary being created to own Jimmy Choo.
Labelux, founded by Germany's billionaire Reimann family in 2007, was said in media reports to have outbid final-round bidder private equity firm TPG Capital.
TowerBrook Capital Partners, which bought the shoemaker in 2007 for £185 million and has developed the company into a global brand with its stiletto heels worn by the rich and famous, also considered a £650 million Hong Kong listing for Jimmy Choo.
Jimmy Choo was founded in 1996 in London by Mellon, a former Vogue editor, and shoemaker Jimmy Choo, who sold his interest in 2001.
In 2010, Jimmy Choo reported net sales of £150 million. So far this year, sales are rising by a double- digit percentage.
Labelux retained Rothschild as its financial adviser and Hogan Lovells as legal counsel.
TowerBrook hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as its advisers and Kirkland & Ellis as legal counsel. The deal is expected to close at the end of June.
