Billabong to put West 49 up for sale

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
May 24, 2013

It has been radio silence from the Australian group regarding the negotiations with Paul Naude and Sycamore Partners since Billabong requested that the trading of its shares was suspended on May 9. Since then, various Australian and American publications have announced that Billabong has put its chain of Canadian West 49 stores up for sale.

The group acquired the chain of 70 stores in 2010 for the price of 100 million Canadian dollars (around 75 million euros). The deal also included the sale of six Billabong stores, two Element stores and a network of 18 Amnesia stores, all of which are in Canada. The group’s retail activity in this market was struggling with profitability at the time.

At the time of publishing, negotiations are said to still be taking place and a final deal is yet to be signed. It seems that the Billabong team fight hard with competitor consortium VF-Altamont throwing in the towel on the deal.

Sycamore and Paul Naude made an offer for Billabong in December at the price f 1.10 dollars a share, almost twice the price of their last offer at 60 cents a share. Shares at the company have since fell to just 55 cents, just before trading was suspended. Back in February of 2012, the group rejected an offer of 3 dollars a share from investment fund TPG Capital.