US PE firm swoops in £300m deal for Republic
REPUBLIC, the Yorkshire fashion chain established nearly 25 years ago, is to be sold to a US private equity firm for £300m today.
The sale to TPG by Change Capital Partners will result in multi-million pound windfalls for Leeds-based Republic’s management team and co-founders Tim Whitworth and Carl Brewins.
The pair are expected to reinvest in the company following the deal.
The Leeds offices of accountancy firm Deloitte and law firm Addleshaw Goddard have advised the management team on the sale.
Nigel Ward, transaction services partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Leeds, provided vendor due diligence.
TPG is understood to want to expand the Republic chain, which sells brands including Diesel, Miss Sixty and G-Star.
TPG is planning to increase the number of stores in the chain, which currently has 103 shops across the UK.
Texas-based TPG has bought Republic from Change Capital Partners, which backed a £105m management buyout of the business in 2005.
Mr Whitworth and Mr Brewins are thought to have held a stake of around 40% following the MBO.
Change Capital Partners is headed up by Luc Vandevelde and Roger Holmes, the former chairman and chief executive of Marks & Spencer.
Republic had sales of about £200m in the year to the end of January.
The group was launched in Leeds in 1986 as a men’s denim retailer, before branching out to become a clothing brands retailer.
It has expanded rapidly since 2005, when it had 70 stores, and its underlying profits have tripled during the past three years to £33.5m for the year to the end of January.
