Ted Baker has kicked off a formal sale process for the fashion brand after rejecting a series of bids from the US private equity group Sycamore Partners and others.
The company said it had received more than one unsolicited offer from third parties in addition to three bids from Sycamore, a group that previously owned the British shoe shop chains Kurt Geiger and Nine West and has recently been linked to a potential bid for the health and beauty chain Boots.
Ted Baker, which has more than 500 shops and concessions around the world, said that as a result of the expressions of interest it had “decided to conduct an orderly process to establish whether there is a bidder prepared to offer a value that the board considers attractive relative to the standalone prospects of Ted Baker as a listed company”.
Interested parties are being invited to submit indicative offers to Ted Baker’s advisers Evercore and Blackdown Partners. A number of bids will then be selected to participate in a second phase.
Sycamore, whose first approach emerged on 18 March, has a deadline of 15 April to decide if it will participate in the formal sales process for Ted Baker, put forward a formal offer or walk away. If it decides to take part in the new sales process that deadline will lapse.
The sale process comes as Ted Baker’s share price remains in the doldrums after collapsing in 2018 amid difficult trading conditions for clothing brands, a scandal about a culture of “forced hugs” under its founder, Ray Kelvin, which led to his exit from the company. The company was then hit by the emergence of an accounting error and a string of profit warnings.
Ted Baker is attempting a turnaround under its new boss, Rachel Osborne, who took over in 2020, after its core market for suits and outfits for social events took a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The bidders have approached amid early signs of a turnaround, with losses narrowing more than 70% to £25m in the six months to 14 August last year as sales bounced back nearly 18% to £199m. But the company is currently without a chair after the death of the incumbent, John Barton, in December.
Shares in Ted Baker have risen by 48% since 17 March, the day before Sycamore first revealed its plans for a bid, but remain more than 90% below March 2018 levels.
