Jimmy Choo Sold to Bally’s Owner

Labelux, which owns Swiss shoe brand Bally, agreed to buy upscale
shoemaker Jimmy Choo. Financial details werent disclosed, but earlier
reports suggested Jimmy
Choo was valued at £400 million to £550 million ($650 million to $895
million).

Labelux also owns the Derek Lam fashion house and British
jeweler Solange Azagury-Partridge. The seller was TowerBrook.

“Jimmy Choo is an outstanding brand with enormous growth potential and
the ability to deliver material growth synergies across our group,”
Labelux Chief Executive Reinhard Mieck said.

Jimmy Choo had net sales of 150 million pounds in 2010 and is growing at
more than 10 percent in all categories and geographic regions, Labelux
said. The company has 120 stores now, double the number when TowerBrook
acquired it.

Jimmy Choo’s founder, Tamara Mellon, and Chief Executive Officer Joshua Schulman will stay on after the purchase,

TowerBrook, which was spun out of Soros Fund Management LLC, teamed up
with Mellon and other Jimmy Choo management to buy control of the
company from Lion Capital LLC in 2007. The offer valued the shoemaker at
185 million pounds at the time and marked the third time the fashion
brand was acquired by a private-equity investor.

Asian Growth

“Substantial potential awaits the Jimmy Choo brand, particularly in Asia
where Labelux has a proven track record,” TowerBrook co-CEO Ramez
Sousou said in the statement.

Jimmy Choo was founded in 1996 by the shoemaker of the same name and Mellon. Choo sold out in 2001.