LVMH Founder’s Buyout Firm Makes £1.5B Investment In Retail Property Powerhouse
The private equity firm backed by the world’s third-richest man has completed a £1.5B deal to buy a stake in one of the most successful outlet mall companies internationally.
L Catterton, which has luxury goods giant LVMH and the family office of founder Bernard Arnault behind it, bought a stake that gives it about a 25% ownership of Value Retail.
It bought the stake from Hammerson, which confirmed the deal in a stock exchange announcement. The deal sees a fund manager backed by a luxury goods titan take a significant stake in an outlet mall chain that became profitable selling luxury goods to tourists in the UK and the rest of Europe.
L Catterton's acquisition includes nine of Value Retail’s outlet malls: Bicester Village, in which Hammerson owns a 50% stake, plus villages in Milan, Barcelona and Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Kildare, Ireland, and Ingolstadt, Frankfurt and Munich, Germany.
Bicester Village in Oxfordshire is focused on upscale and luxury retail, and it is often cited as achieving the highest sales per SF of any retail scheme internationally. Its draw is such that retailers have tended not to open other designer outlet stores in the south of England.
The 245K SF outlet centre 65 miles north-west of London is estimated to be visited by up to 80% of the roughly 350,000 Chinese visitors to the UK every year. The platform at Marylebone station, from which trains to the nearest town depart, has signs and announcements in Mandarin, and Bicester Village employs about 150 Mandarin speakers.
It receives 7 million visits annually, attracting shoppers from Middle Eastern royals to the average bargain hunter.
Value Retail’s other shareholders include founder Scott Malkin, who owns 35% of the business. U.S. retail giant Simon Property Group and Dutch pension fund APG both own 20%.
“With its high quality portfolio, reputation for luxury, and commitment to delivering a distinctive experience to customers, Value Retail is well positioned for growth and continued success,” L Catterton Global co-CEO Michael Chu said in a statement.
“We have deep experience investing in luxury retail, and we are eager to leverage our operational expertise and global network of established relationships to partner with Value Retail and propel the business forward.”
The price being paid by L Catterton is a discount of about 25% to the £1.9B value at which Hammerson held the stake in Value Retail on its books.
Hammerson said that the sale would produce about £600M of cash for the business. It will use about £140M of the proceeds to buy back shares, £95M to pay down debt, and £350M to invest in its portfolio of shopping centres in the UK, France and Ireland.
