Sexy lingerie brand Agent Provocateur for sale

Huge surplus

Private equity firm 3i, which also owns discount chain Action and fitness chain Basic-Fit, has apparently asked business banks Goldman Sachs and Rothschild to see if there are interested parties for its “naughty” luxury lingerie brand. The company is hoping to get 200 million pounds (some 252 million euro), which would be a huge surplus to the 60 million pounds (75 million euro) it paid for Agent Provocateur in 2007.

The brand was founded in 1994 by son of fashion guru Joseph Corré and his former wife Serena Rees. His wife at the time left when 3i joined in 2007, which her former husband did as well two years later even though he kept a minority stake.

Helena Christensen, Kate Moss and Penelope Cruz

Its EBITDA for the past fiscal year doubled to 3.7 million pounds, some 4.64 million euro. On a like-for-like basis, turnover grew 5 %, but a huge worldwide expansion helped grow turnover 24.5 % to 39 million pounds, nearly 49 million euro.

The group, which has opened 11 new stores last year (like in Milan, Hong Kong, Sydney and Montreal), now has 88 boutiques with planned openings in Chengdu, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto and Calgary.

Agent Provocateur became a household name through sexy lingerie and sexy ad campaigns with top models and actrices like Helena Christensen, Kate Moss and Penelope Cruz. The latter produced the newest Agent Provocateur ad, described as the sexiest commercial ever, despite coming from a brand not too shy to create a stunt.