Authentic Brands is plotting a double takeover of collapsed department store chain Debenhams and Topshop-owner Arcadia Group in a deal that could fetch more than £400 million.
Authentic Brands, owner of the New York department store brand Barneys, is in talks this weekend with the administrators of both stricken companies.
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group said on Monday it was in negotiations to buy Debenhams from administrators in a rescue deal. It was also interested in participating in the sale of Philip Green’s collapsed Arcadia Group.
Frasers, formerly Sports Direct, said that it hoped a deal could be agreed and jobs at Debenhams saved after the COVID-19 pandemic sunk its business, but cautioned that the transaction was complicated and talks needed to take place quickly.
Administrators for Debenhams said earlier in December it would be wound-down, closing all its shops after 242 years in business and putting 12,000 jobs at risk. Green’s Arcadia fashion group collapsed into administration late in November putting more than 13,000 jobs at risk.
Authentic Brands – which owns a stable of global fashion businesses including Juicy Couture – is understood to be among the interested parties. Rival contenders include private equity titans Fortress, Elliott Management, Apollo and OpCapita, sources told.
Authentic Brands Group is backed by Larry Fink’s US investment giant BlackRock. New York private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners is also an investor.
Source: Reuters
