Footwear fanatic and Kurt Geiger chief executive Neil Clifford has today agreed a management buyout of the shoe-maker backed by the US private equity group Sycamore Partners.
This month Sycamore completed its $2.2 billion (£1.3 billion) purchase of struggling Jones Group — which as well as Kurt Geiger, owned other footwear brands Stuart Weitzman, Anne Klein and Nine West.
It then agreed a restructuring to split Geiger from the group and back Clifford in his buyout.Clifford, who has been at the retailer since 1995, led a £46 million buyout of Geiger with Barclays Private Equity from Harrods in 2005.
He led another with Graphite Capital in 2008. Geiger, founded in London in 1963, was sold to the US-based Jones Group in 2011.
The deal with Sycamore leaves Clifford free to expand further overseas. Sycamore also has a stake in US fashion chain Aeropostale and classic womenswear group Talbots.
