Boohoo completes acquisition of Nasty Gal

British etailer Boohoo has completed its acquisition of the IP and certain assets of LA-based Nasty Gal.

Manchester-based Boohoo finalised the $20m deal yesterday, as expected, and funded it with a new £12m debt facility from HSBC.

The deal hands the Nasty Gal IP and customer base to Boohoo, which sees it as a boost to its global expansion ambitions, particularly in the US.

HSBC Managing Director of Large Corporate Banking in the North, Ben Andrews described Boohoo as "another Manchester success story" and said that global expansion was the next "natural step" for the fast-growing business.

"The global nature of retail makes customer data and insights extremely valuable. This acquisition has given Boohoo an important foothold in the US market and marks another important milestone in Boohoo’s growth," Andrews said.

Nasty Gal was founded in Los Angeles in 2006 by entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso. It ran into difficulty last year and was placed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the autumn at which point Amoruso stepped down.

Boohoo tabled a "stalking horse" bid for Nasty Gal over the Christmas period, putting it in the favourite position to win the race to buy it. In the event, no competing bids were lodged and the deal was then approved by US bankruptcy courts.

The deal marks the company’s second acquisition in less than three months, after it took a £3.3m stake in growing young fashion brand PrettyLittleThing in December 2016.