Peacock buyout at £410m

Peacock will today become the latest UK retailer to be taken pr ivate when it announces it has agreed to a management buy-out valuing the high street discount chain at about £410m. John Lovering, former chairman of the group, will invest £9.2m in the buy-out through Echelon Partners, his investment vehicle, in exchange for a substantial stake in the company and a seat on the board. Och-Ziff and Perry Capital, two US hedge funds that helped finance the takeover of Manchester United earlier this year, will pr ovide £70m each. Goldman Sachs Capital Partners will pr ovide a further £28m.

Cardiff-based Peacock was founded in 1882 as Peacock's Penny Bazaar. It has more than 700 stores in the UK . The group announced in August that it had received an ap pr oach from one potential suitor that was later revealed to be Goldman Sachs' pr ivate equity division. That development came five months after Peacock revealed it was in early talks, only to announce a day later that the ap pr oach had been withdrawn.

Earlier this month, the group gave an upbeat trading statement in which it said that all three divisions had shown underlying sales growth in the 13 weeks to October 1. Sales rose 12 per cent and the management said it was optimistic of hitting full-year expectations. The group said Peacock shops had continued to trade strongly, Bonmarché had im pr oved on a weak performance last year and eight new Fragrance Shops had been opened. Mr Lovering, who is also heading the consortium that has agreed to buy Somerfield, stepped down from Peacock in February to concentrate on his role as non-executive chairman at Debenhams.