Could Agent Provocateur be up for sale?

London - Agent Provocateur, the luxury lingerie label founded by Joseph Corré, son of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, is said to be headed for the selling block. The lingerie brand is reportedly set to be put up for sale by its private equity owner 3i, according to a report from the Times.

3i is said to have called in restructuring specialist from AlixPartners to draft a turnaround plan for the lingerie company ahead of an "imminent auction." In addition, 3i has also taken on advisers from Rothschild to help oversee any potential sale. The sale would come not long after 3i reduced the value of Agent Provocateur by 39 million pounds in November, as the luxury label continued to battle against the decline in luxury spend.

Agent Provocateur is also said to be struggling with the inconsistent execution of its recent store expansion, coupled with accounting issues, which could see the brand being worth as little as 15 million pounds according to sources at the Times as KPMG launches an investigation into the luxury brand's accountants PwC. 3i recently invested an additional 4 million pounds cash into Agent Provocateur to help steer it through these tough times, which in turn led to the board changes earlier this year.

Non-executive chairman Chris Woodhouse stepped down and passed on the batone to 3i partner Ian Lobely, and former Chief Executive Officer Gary Hogarth left his role last February before ex-managing director at Dior Homme, Fabrizio Malverdi took the reigns over in April. As of yet, no potential buyers have been named, although if the sale does go through the luxury lingerie label will likely been taken over by an turnaround expert.

This would not be the first time 3i would try to offload Agent Provocateur. In 2014 3i tried to sell its controlling stake in the company it acquired for 60 million pounds from Corré ten years ago, but failed to find the right buyer.

Photos: Agent Provocateur AW16 campaign by Mario Sorrenti