Visage fashions £173m sale

A FASHION supplier with a major Manchester base has been sold to a global sourcing business in a deal worth up to £173m.

Visage Group, which has a major office in Eccles and its distribution hub in the North East, has been bought by Li & Fung, the Hong Kong-based group.

Visage is run by cousins Sanjeev Mehan from Hale and Raj Sehgal, who lives in Newcastle. The cousins bought the business in 2005 from Mr Sehgal’s parents.

The pair, and other shareholders, which included Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance, will receive an initial £55m followed by a performance-based sum of up to £115.5m.

Visage is a leading private-label clothing supplier to leading high street and multiple retailers.

In the year to the end of January 2009 Visage made a profit of £19.4m on sales of £186m.

Andrew Thomas and Adam Hansen at investment bank Rothschilds in Manchester advised the vendors. A team from PricewaterhouseCoopers in the city provided due diligence. 

Bruce Rockowitz, president of Li & Fung (Trading) Company, said, “This acquisition dramatically strengthens LF Europe’s growth platform. It will add substantial scale to our existing operation and further our objective of developing a significant European onshore presence.

“Furthermore, the acquisition will generate business with the majority of leading UK retailers, thus increasing our overall market share and providing an excellent platform for future growth.”