Redcats sells Ellos and Jotex to Nordic Capital

Luxury group PPR has announced that its Redcats unit had agreed to sell its Scandinavian brands Ellos and Jotex to Nordic Capital for an enterprise value of 275 million euro. PPR advanced that the transaction will be completed in the coming

months.

Redcats, the mail order unit belonging to PPR will finish the sale of home shopping brand Ellos and textile and decoration brand Jotex to Nordic Capital, a private equity fund, for a total of 275 million euros. Rothschild acted as financial advisor to PPR in the deal and Vinge acted as legal advisor.

Nordic Capital “has solid experience in Nordic retail,” PPR said in a communication, adding that “it encourages businesses to grow by expansion into new markets, product development, new industrial combinations, strategic repositioning and internationalisation”.

The operation is to be framed within PPR's late strategy to purely focus on its luxury and sports brands that have a better growth potential that other retail brands. In this breath, the French group has been progressively divesting its Redcats business. In January, they unveiled to be in exclusive talks to sell Cyrillus and Vertbaudet children’s clothing brands to Alpha Private Equity Fund for 119 million euros including debt, reported Reuters.

In 2012, Last year, private equity group Charlesbank Capital Partners and Webster Capital bought out PPR's its US plus-size fashion business OneStopPlus Group. PPR also shed its American sports and leisure business to retailer Northern Tool + Equipment.

Aimed to strengthen its position within the luxury industry, late in 2012, PPR took a majority stake in Chinese luxury jewelry brand, Qeelin, and last month announced it acquired a majority stake in the luxury designer brand, Christopher Kane.

PPR will start the sales process for La Redoute in April, Chief Executive Officer Francois-Henri Pinault said in a Feb. 15 Bloomberg TV interview.

PPR shares traded low on Monday, losing 2.33 percent by the end of the session.