Kurt Geiger owner Cinven considers £400m sale

Kurt Geiger's private equity owner Cinven is considering a £400 million sale of the premium footwear retailer.

According to Sky News, Cinven, which acquired Kurt Geiger in 2015, is working with Bank of America on preparing the sale process, which could begin in the next few months.

Kurt Geiger was founded 60 years ago with a store on London's Bond Street and a sale would come at a buoyant time for the retailer, which recently unveiled a colourful new flagship store on London's Oxford Street.

The opening followed an injection of £150 million into the business in the form of a new funding package provided by Wells Fargo Capital Finance UK, a part of Wells Fargo & Company, and Blazehill Capital, a UK private credit fund offering transformational capital.

Kurt Geiger said the funds would be used to fuel its international growth and to develop the menswear side of the business. The company now operates over 80 stores and 100 concessions in department stores, including Harrods and Selfridges.

Kurt Geiger, Oxford Street

It has been working on its presence overseas and currently has wholesale partnerships with retailers in the US, including Dillard’s and Nordstrom.

The company has been in the hands of four different private equity owners since it was sold in 2005 by its former owner Harrods.

CEO Neil Clifford, who has headed the business for 20 years and says its respective owners have helped growth the business, recently told The Times in an interview that another sales was on the cards, since private equity owners typically sell businesses on after three to five years of ownership.

"[...] that’s just inevitable,” he told The Times. “It is pointless saying we’ll never be up for sale, because we will be as we are private equity-owned.”