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Published
May 22, 2011
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Labelux buys shoemaker Jimmy Choo from TowerBrook

By
Reuters
Published
May 22, 2011

May 22 - Jimmy Choo was bought by luxury goods group Labelux from TowerBrook Capital Partners LP, and two of the British upscale shoemaker and retailer's top executives will stay on.

Jimmy Choo
Jimmy Choo S/S 2011 campaign

The companies did not disclose terms of the deal announced on Sunday, but British newspapers, the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Times, earlier reported that the price tag was in the region of 500-550 million British pounds ($812 million-$893 million).

Vienna-based Labelux, whose other investments include shoemaker Bally, said Jimmy Choo's co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Tamara Mellon and Chief Executive Officer Joshua Schulman would stay on in their current jobs. Mellon will take a stake in the subsidiary being created to own Jimmy Choo.

Labelux, founded by Germany's billionaire Reimann family in 2007, was said in media reports to have outbid final-round bidder private equity firm TPG Capital.

TowerBrook Capital Partners, which bought the shoemaker in 2007 for 185 million pounds and has developed the company into a global brand with its stiletto heels worn by the rich and famous.

TowerBrook also considered a 650 million-pound Hong Kong listing for Jimmy Choo.

Jimmy Choo was founded in 1996 in London by Mellon, a former Vogue editor, and shoemaker Jimmy Choo, who sold his interest in 2001.

In 2010, Jimmy Choo reported net sales of 150 million British pounds. So far this year, sales are rising by a double- digit percentage.

(Reporting by Lorraine Turner in London and Phil Wahba in New York, additional reporting by Simon Meads in London and Michael Shields in Vienna; Editing by Dan Lalor and Maureen Bavdek)

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