Jimmy Choo put up for sale by JAB Holdings
German owner of shoemaker is switching focus from luxury goods to coffee
Jimmy Choo, the UK shoemaker made famous by TV show Sex and the City, has been put up for sale after its owner decided to switch its focus from luxury goods to coffee.
The company’s management said on Monday that it was seeking buyers following a decision “to conduct a review of the various strategic options open to the company to maximise value for its shareholders”. It said it was “not in receipt of any approaches” so far.
The shares have risen a third in the past year, valuing the company at £390m.
Jimmy Choo said Joh A Benckiser Holdings, a private German investment company that owns 70 per cent of the shares according to S&P Capital IQ, “has confirmed that it is supportive of the [sale] process”.
A person close to Jimmy Choo said JAB Holdings felt luxury goods companies such as Jimmy Choo were “surplus to requirements” now that it had decided to spend tens of billions of dollars building a presence in the coffee business. It has spent $30bn on such deals in recent years, including the $14bn purchase of Keurig Green Mountain, a maker of household coffee machines.
The deals have signalled that JAB wants to challenge Nestlé as the dominant provider of coffee worldwide.
Jimmy Choo staff own 3 per cent of the shares and the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore and Kuwait own 2.7 and 2.5 per cent respectively.
On Friday the shares had risen 33 per cent over the past year and rose a further 6 per cent on Monday morning following the announcement, to 178p.
JAB, which is controlled by the billionaire Reimann family, floated a quarter of the business in 2014 at 140p. It bought the business for £500m in 2011 from TowerBrook Capital, a private equity firm.
Jimmy Choo was founded in 1996 by former Vogue accessories editor Tamara Mellon and Malaysian designer Jimmy Choo. The brand shot to fame after featuring in US sitcom Sex and the City.
Last month Jimmy Choo said sales rose 1.6 per cent in 2016 once currency effects were excluded, with growth in China being offset by difficult trading in the US and Europe. Including the effects of the strong pound, sales were £364m, a 15 per cent rise.