TDR Capital to acquire NKD from OpCapita

OpCapita Consumer Opportunities Fund LP, under OpCapita LLP has announced the sale of its portfolio company NKD to funds advised by TDR Capital, according to a statement on the company’s website. Headquartered in Bindlach, Germany, NKD is a discount clothing retailer and operates a chain of 1,800 small-format stores across Germany, Austria, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia. Over the past three years, NKD has witnessed an average 7.5 percent increase in sales per year.

Commenting on the transaction, Joshua Spoerri, Managing Director at OpCapita, said in a statement: "We are pleased to announce this transaction, which marks the first exit from our first fund. The turnaround we have achieved at NKD is emblematic of OpCapita's approach; taking a struggling consumer business and transforming it into a profitable, stable business with great prospects."

Under OpCapita's ownership since 2013, NKD has been restored from a loss-making enterprise to a profitable venture. OpCapita said, it strengthened the management team of NKD, focused on optimum pricing to ensure NKD is competitive, re-built the company's supply chain, including reducing the number of suppliers while increasing their geographic spread, and refined the store portfolio, to close underperforming branches and restart expansion. This has resulted in a swing from losses of 34 million euros at the time of investment to EBITDA of 45 million euros in 2018.

"We would like to thank the OpCapita team for their invaluable support and guidance. We have mastered a successful turnaround in recent years, thereby paving the way for ongoing sales growth and a further increase in profitability. We are expecting to see robust sales growth and a further increase in our profitability in the years to come – both in comparable sales areas and as a result of expansion," added Ulrich Hanfeld, CEO of NKD Group.