Luxury Retailer Neiman Marcus Group To Be Sold To Ares Management LLC And CPPIB For $6B

Ares Management LLC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, or CPPIB, on Monday, announced that they have agreed to buy the Dallas, Texas-based luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group for $6 billion.

Both Ares Management and CPPIB will hold equal stakes in the retailer, and the company’s management will retain a minority stake.

“We plan on investing meaningful capital into the business to ensure Neiman’s long-term position as the unparalleled leader in luxury retail… This investment fits with our longstanding approach of accelerating growth in companies in the consumer and retail sectors,” David Kaplan, senior partner and co-head of Los Angeles-based Ares Management, said in statement.

The Neiman Marcus Group is currently owned by a group of private equity investors led by TPG and Warburg Pincus, who bought the company for $5.1 billion in 2005.

Overall sales of luxury goods, which fell during the recession, showed signs of recovery in 2012 by growing at 13 percent. Now, the industry is expected to grow at a slower pace of 5 percent to 7 percent in the Americas this year, Associated Press reported, quoting consulting firm Bain & Co.

Neiman Marcus, Inc., had filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission in July, and at the same time, was also scouting for a suitor to sell itself. The current deal would probably cancel the retailer’s plan to go public.

Neiman Marcus, founded in 1907 by Herbert Marcus Sr., his sister Carrie Marcus, and her husband A.L Neiman, operates 79 stores in the U.S., totaling more than 6.5 million gross square feet. It also has an online sales division, which offers brands such as Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Last Call and Horchow, through the portal.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2013, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, the companies said, in the statement.

A portion of the purchase price will be used at the closing to repay all amounts outstanding under the company’s existing credit facilities other than its 7.125 percent Senior Debentures, due in 2028 and issued by its operating subsidiary, The Neiman Marcus Group, Inc.