Next buys Warburg Pincus’ stake in Reiss for £128 million
Next has teamed up with the Reiss family to acquire Warburg Pincus’ 34% interest in the Reiss fashion brand for £128 million.
After the deal’s expected completion date of mid-October, Next’s holding in Reiss will increase from 51% to 72%. Meanwhile, the Reiss family and management team will hold equity of 22% and 6% respectively. Next first bought a 25% stake in Reiss in 2021.
The news follows a period of strong growth for Reiss under the leadership of its chief executive Christos Angelides. In the year to 28 January 2023, the brand increased its total sales by 26.4% to £324.6 million and pre-tax profit by 50.5% to £51.6 million.
Angelides was appointed as chief executive in 2017 and will remain in the role following the transaction. He previously worked with Next for 28 years and served for 14 years on the Next board as group product director.
Following the deal, Reiss will continue to retain its own board directors and its management will remain autonomous with headquarters in London. However, its websites and online operations will remain contracted to Next through Next’s Total Platform, which went live in February 2022. Next said the platform has served as a launch pad for Reiss’s growth.
Simon Wolfson, Next chief executive, said: “Reiss has performed exceptionally well since we first invested in March 2021. This success has been driven by the strength of its brand, first class management and the benefits of Total Platform; we look forward to continuing to develop the business with Christos and the Reiss team. Warburg Pincus has been an excellent partner throughout the term of our investment and we have enjoyed working with them during the last two years.”
Angelides added: “We look forward to continuing to focus on creating authentic and timeless collections for our customers and over the next few months we will be launching a number of new initiatives that will both expand the breadth and choice of our collections worldwide.”
