Reiss has categorically denied recent media speculation that private equity firm and majority stakeholder Warburg Pincus is looking to sell the retailer.
The story first emerged over the weekend in The Sunday Telegraph which said that Reiss’ private equity backer was “preparing to appoint bankers to stitch together the sale of a majority stake” in the business.
A source at the fashion retailer said the story was “completely untrue” and lambasted the newspaper for not contacting either the business or Warburg Pincus before running the article.
The source said: “The Sunday Telegraph story saying that our majority owners Warburg are about to appoint bankers to sell the business is completely untrue, as are a number of other facts stated in the story.
“Furthermore, The Sunday Telegraph did not contact either Reiss or Warburg about this story before it was published in order to check their facts.”
A spokeswoman for Warburg Pincus said: “It is categorically untrue to say that bankers are going to be appointed to explore the sale of our investment in Reiss, or that the company itself is up for sale.”
New York-based Warburg Pincus took a majority stake in Reiss in April 2016, valued at £230m at the time.
At its most recent financial update, the fashion retailer posted a 21.2% increase in EBITDA to £19.2m in the 25 weeks to February 2. Total sales at Reiss advanced 8.3% to £186.3m.
In the first 10 weeks of the current financial year, Reiss’ group sales advanced 27.9% year on year, while UK like-for-like sales rose 27.6% and international like-for-likes were up 38.6%.
Reiss said its performance reflected lower promotional activity and a focus on full-price sell-through, which delivered year-on-year margin growth.
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