Fast Retailing to invest in M&A

The Japanese distribution and textiles group Fast Retailing announced on Monday that it will invest between €2.19 billion (£1.48 billion) and €2.92 billion in mergers and acquisitions in Europe , the US and China within the next three years. On Monday Fast Retailing, owner of fashion brands Uniqlo and Comptoir des cotonniers, revealed its new business strategy for the next five years. Within this time it hopes to achieve its goal of “becoming the number one global casual apparel group with sales of €7.3 billion per year. The group anticipates sales for 2005/6 to amount to €2.8 billion.

With the €2.92 billion it plans to invest in “acquisitions or partnerships with companies in Europe , the US and China that can provide the necessary infrastructure and staff for the local development of Uniqlo”, the company said in a statement. The targeted companies are “companies in the fashion industry with a global growth potential”, capable of generating annual sales in excess of €73 billion and margins of 10 percent, the group has stated.

In May, Fast Retailing took over the French fashion chain Comptoir des cotonniers, which has 186 stores in France and three in Spain . The Group hopes that Comptoir will generate sales of €282 million by 2010. The founder of Fast Retailing, Tadashi Yanai, resumed his position as chief executive of the Group on 1 September, after the dismissal of chairman Genichi Tamatsuka following poor financial results.