Fashion Investments and M&A

Date: May 2024
Buyer: Frasers Group
Target: Boohoo
Business: Women’s fashion e-tailer
Value: Undisclosed
Details: Frasers Group (owner of Sports Direct, Flannels, House of Fraser and Jack Wills), has again subscribed for shares in Boohoo, taking its current stake in the business from 22.08% (February 2024) to 23.10%. Since October 2023, Frasers Group has been the largest shareholder in Boohoo, and continues its strategy of increasing its shareholding incrementally every few months.

Date: April 2024
Buyer: Mirabaud Lifestyle, Impact & Innovation Fund, D1 Capital Partners, JAM Fund
Target: Sparxell
Business: Plant-based textile pigments
Value: £2.5million
Details: Sparxell, a business founded in 2022 by University of Cambridge scientists Dr Bejamin Droguet and Professor Silvia Vignolini, has received £2.5million in a seed funding round. The round was led by Circular Innovation Fund, a venture capital fund managed by L’Oreal Cycle Capital and Demeter. Fellow investors included Future Communities Capital (an investor in SpaceX), PDS Ventures, Katapult, Joyance Partners and SNØCAP VC. Sparxell works to create vibrant colour pigments using fully plant-based cellulose, a renewable, biodegradable resource that can be extracted from waste streams. The resulting product is toxin-free and fully biodegradable, with Dr Droguet stating that “our plant-based materials can be grown and sourced locally in a complete rethink of how colours are currently being manufactured while reducing transport emissions”, compared to traditional chemical colourants that cause “major environmental harm”. Sparxell’s products can then be used in the fashion industry through textile colouring, embellishments and sequins, once it completes a further Series A funding round later this year.

Date: April 2024
Buyer: Frasers Group
Target: Matches Fashion
Business: Women’s fashion retailer
Value: Undisclosed
Details: Frasers Group has purchased certain IP assets from Matches Fashion (“Matches”) out of administration for an undisclosed sum. Frasers acquired Matches from Apax Partners for £52million in December 2023, and subsequently placed Matches into administration in March 2024, appointing Teneo as the administrators. Currently, Matches’ administrators estimate that the business has £36million owed to unsecured creditors, which include many of the luxury brands stocked in Matches’ stores and website, and currently has over £80million worth of stock. Frasers’ acquisition is limited strictly to Matches’ IP (said to be intangible items, including the Matches trademark, domain names and databases of the Matches store), and does not include the stock or remaining employees, which remain under the administrators’ control.

Date: April 2024
Buyer: JD Sports Fashion
Target: Hibbett, Inc.
Business: Sportswear / Athletic fashion retailer
Value: $1.08billion
Details: JD Sports Fashion (“JD Sports”) has agreed to acquire US athletic fashion retailer, Hibbett, Inc., for $1.08billion, equal to $87.50 per share. Hibbett, Inc. is headquartered in Alabama, and operates 1,169 stores across 36 states in the US. The North American region currently contributes 32% to JD Sports’ total sales, and adding Hibbett to JD Sports’ portfolio is thought to increase that contribution to 40%, and will increase JD Sports’ US reach “from coast to coast”.

Date: March 2024
Buyer: Frasers Group
Target: Aphrodite
Business: Menswear retailer
Value: Undisclosed
Details: Frasers Group has acquired Sunderland-based independent menswear retailer, Aphrodite, for an undisclosed amount. Aphrodite was founded in 1994, and counts Paul Smith, Barbour and Patagonia among the brands it stocks. This is the latest in a series of acquisitions of independent retailers by Fraser, who also acquired Zee & Co. (based in London and Essex) and John Anthony (based in Bournemouth) in December 2023, both of which stock multiple brads, like Aphrodite, and Flannels, purchased by Frasers in 2017.

Date: March 2024
Buyer: OTB Group
Target: Calzaturificio Stephen
Business: Italian luxury footwear brand
Value: Undisclosed
Details: OTB Group (owner of Viktor&Rolf, Maison Margiela, and Diesel, amongst others) has acquired a majority shareholding in luxury Italian footwear brand Calzaturificio Stephen (“CS”). The Bertollo family, who founded the business in 1967, continue to maintain a stake in the business and will continue to run the business going forward. CS has been a supplier to OTB Group for over 20 years, supplying luxury footwear to OTB Group’s brands, and OTB has been increasing its shareholding in CS for some time. The acquisition is part of OTB’s plan to optimise its supply chain, by acquiring Italy-based companies to help in the development of its brands.

Date: March 2024
Buyer: Mirabaud Lifestyle, Impact & Innovation Fund, D1 Capital Partners, JAM Fund
Target: Urbanic London
Business: Urban fashion
Value: $150million
Details: Urbanic, a London-based brand that focuses on socially-responsible urban fashion, has completed a Series C investment funding round totalling $150 million from a group of international investors, including Swiss-entity Mirabaud Lifestyle, Impact & Innovation Fund, US-based D1 Capital Partners, and JAM Fund, amongst other European co-investors. Urbanic was founded in 2019, with an emphasis on environmental and social responsibility throughout the value chain of its products, and its use of technology to generate fashion designs. The investment will be used to improve its technology – particularly around AI to generate further designs and online content – and to improve the sustainability of its supply chain, minimising inventory waste by aligning designs with actual demand for its products.

Date: March 2024
Buyer: General Catalyst, Voyager Ventures
Target: Packfleet
Business: Electric courier
Value: $10million
Details: Packfleet, a fully-electric parcel courier with B Corporation status, has received a $10 million investment through a Series A funding round led by VC firms General Catalyst and Voyager Ventures, with co-investors Creandum, Entree Capital and Founder Collective. Based in London, Packfleet was founded in 2021, and currently operates a fleet of 130 electric vans, employing 35 people at its head office and 100 people as drivers. The company plans to use this investment to expand - both within London and to the rest of the UK - later this year. Packfleet counts female-founded fashion resale platform HURR, and big names such as Pizza Pilgrims, among its customers.

Date: February 2024
Buyer: Tomorrow Ltd
Target: A-Cold-Wall
Business: Luxury Streetwear
Value: Undisclosed
Details: Samuel Ross, the founder of London luxury streetwear band A-Cold-Wall, has sold his remaining shareholding in the brand to Tomorrow Ltd, a multi-service business accelerator for fashion brands, who now owns 100% of the brand. Samuel Ross, a former intern of Virgil Abloh’s, founded A-Cold-Wall in 2015, which has continued to scale over the last 9 years. Tomorrow Ltd is a multi-service business accelerator, which advises fashion brands on sales and distribution, manufacturing, operations and product development, and counts Parisian brand Coperni amongst its investments. Tomorrow Ltd first invested in A-Cold-Wall back in 2018, and has continued to work closely with the brand ever since. As well as selling the business, Samuel Ross is stepping down as creative director of the brand, and going forwards will focus on designing products under his own namesake, Samuel Ross & Associations (SR_A).

Date: February 2024
Buyer: Carlyle, IMI
Target: Very
Business: Online Fashion Retailer
Value: £125m
Details: Liverpool-based company Very, owned by Barclays and known for its collaborations with celebrities like Michelle Keegan and Holly Willougby, has received a £125m investment from US investment firm Carlyle and UAE investment house IMI (International Media Investments). £85m of this, provided by Carlyle’s Global Credit arm, will be made available immediately, with the remaining £40m coming from IMI. Very has granted a floating charge over several of its group companies as security for the investment by IMI (with the same companies having been pledged as security for previous debt investments made by Carlyle). As part of the investment package, Carlyle and IMI will each be able to appoint a director to Very’s board of directors, and will bring their ‘deep network of relationships, industry expertise and capabilities’ to Very, while Very’s current non-executive chairman Dirk Van den Berghe will step down and be replaced by Aidan Barclay, as interim chairman until a new appointment is made.