Apax seals takeover of Rue21 at 100 million dollars

Private equity firm Apax Partners has completed the acquisition of Rue21 for 42 dollars per share in cash. As a result, Rue21 stock will cease trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market effective Friday October, 11. The transaction took

quite a bumpy road to completion, as the teen fashion retailer dealt with declining sales and complex debt financing processes. The sale is valued at about 1.1 billion dollars after shareholders at the retailer voted in September to accept the offer by Apax Partners for 42 dollars a share. The company's shares had been trading in the region of 34 dollars when the planned sale was announced in May.

As previously announced, the transaction was approved at a special meeting of stockholders held on September 19, 2013. Pursuant to the terms of the merger agreement dated May 23, 2013, funds advised by Apax Partners have now acquired all of the outstanding shares of rue21.

To fund the takeover, Apax on-boarded J.P. Morgan ChaseJPM & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which altogether agreed to provide about 780 million dollars of debt to match the 283 million dollars in cash put by the private equity firm.

Apax finalises Rue21 takeover after six rocky months

London-based Apax Partners was already an investor in the company when it made the offer. Funds associated with Apax have acquired all of Rue21's outstanding shares, according to the announcement today. Committed debt financing for the transaction is being provided by BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, both parties announced Friday.

As advanced by Apax Partners in a note, stockholders will not have to take any action to receive the merger consideration, as the exchange of their shares for the merger consideration will be handled by the bank or broker.

Perella Weinberg Partners acted as financial advisor to the Special Committee of the Rue21 Board of Directors while J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (lead advisor), BofA Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs provided financial advice to Apax.

Apax is a familiar face in the industry, as it has advised funds over the past 10 years to in invest approximately 6.3 billion dollars of equity in retail and consumer businesses. Apax previous investments include Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, an apparel retail company and one of the world's leading lifestyle brands, which was acquired by PVH Corp. Apax also partnered with PVH in the company's acquisition of Calvin Klein. Other funds advised by the firm are currently invested in New Look and Takko, a value apparel retailer operating in Germany, Central Europe and Russia.