Kering makes Le Redoute appealing for buyers

Kering, the French luxury holding company, is prepared to

put in at least 300 million euros into the mail order catalog Le Redoute in order to attract the right buyer, according to inside sources.

As part of Kering’s ongoing struggle to find a potential buyer, sources told Reuters that Kering were willing to inject money into the unprofitable mail-order catalog. “Kering is ready to re-capitalize the company for an amount of at least 300 million euros,” said one of the sources. The luxury group anticipates that their buyer will be able to “put some money on the table” to help restructure Le Redoute, sources added. Other banking sources mentioned HIG Capital as one of the probably buyers for Le Redoute, as well as real estate company Altarea Cogedim and OpCapita. Kering offers no comments concerning this news.

La Redoute is currently the largest mail-order catalog in all of France and was absorbed by Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, now known as Kering, in 1994. Kering began selling and disposing certain brands that did not fit in their new luxury image in 2006 and sold off French department store Printemps. Selling La Redoute is one of the last hurdles Kering has to clear in order to focus on expanding their luxury and sportswear goods estates.