U.S. based private equity company Regent has signed a purchase contract for German based luxury fashion brand ESCADA. The transaction is expected to be completed before the end of this year. Neither Escada nor Regent were available for comment so far.
For Regent, the deal would be the second major German fashion acquisition on in two months. The financial investor bought the Berlin online shopping club Brands4friends from Ebay at the beginning of September. Other investments in the fashion sector include the lingerie brand La Senza and the cycling clothing maker Mavic. La Senza was taken over by Regent from L Brands at the end of last year. In March, Amer Sports subsidiary Mavic followed.
The potential new subsidiary Escada was owned by businesswoman Megha Mittal since 2009, when the daughter-in-law of Indian steel manufacturer Lakshmi Mittal bought it out of insolvency.
Escada’s most recent publicly available financials date back to 2017, when the fashion company posted a deficit of 16.6 million euros according to the Federal Gazette. More than twice as much as in the previous year (minus EUR 7.8 million). The loss after taxes skyrocketed from EUR 6.6 million to EUR 16.46 million. Sales fell by almost 8% to EUR 113.58 million. According to Handelsblatt, the brand generated sales of around 107 million euros in 2018.
The Escada Group is currently represented in 24 countries in North America, Europe and Asia. The women’s fashion manufacturer has around 700 points of sale in 80 markets worldwide. There are eight Escada stores in Germany.