Choo fits as shoemaker sold for $1b

Jimmy Choo shoes. Photo / Martin Sykes

Privately held group Labelux has tried on Jimmy Choo for size and agreed to buy the luxury shoemaker for more than US$811 million ($1 billion), on the expectation that the market for expensive accessories will continue to grow.

Labelux, which owns Bally, will buy Jimmy Choo from TowerBrook Capital partners, which will make more than three times its initial equity investment, said a person familiar with the matter.

"Jimmy Choo has enormous growth potential and the ability to deliver material growth synergies across our group," Labelux chief executive Reinhard Mieck said.

Jimmy Choo, whose shoes start at about $500 a pair, had net sales of £150 million ($307 million) last year and is growing at more than 10 per cent in all categories and geographic regions, Labelux said. The company has 120 stores now, double the number it had when TowerBrook acquired it.

Jimmy Choo's founder, Tamara Mellon, and chief executive Joshua Schulman will stay on after the purchase, Vienna-based Labelux said.

TowerBrook, which was spun out of Soros Fund Management, teamed up with Mellon and other Jimmy Choo management to buy control of the company from Lion Capital in 2007.

The offer valued the shoemaker at £185 million at the time and marked the third time the fashion brand was acquired by a private-equity investor.

"Substantial potential awaits the Jimmy Choo brand, particularly in Asia where Labelux has a proven track record," TowerBrook co-chief executive Ramez Sousou said.

Sales of luxury shoes will rise 20 per cent a year through 2013, research firm Euromonitor said last year.

Jimmy Choo, whose Macy sandals were reportedly worn by actress Reese Witherspoon at her March wedding, has reported sales growth of more than 30 per cent a year on average since 2001 as the brand expanded into bags, leather goods, scarves and sneakers.

The German billionaire Reimann family founded Labelux. The company is part of the family's Joh A. Benckiser group, which also owns perfume maker Coty and has a stake of 16 per cent in Reckitt Benckiser, the world's largest maker of household cleaners.

Jimmy Choo was founded in 1996 by the shoemaker of the same name and Mellon. Choo sold out in 2001.

- BLOOMBERG