On 30 April 2018, French Connection Group PLC (“French Connection”), together with Jamie and Jessica Seaton (the “Seatons”) (together, the “Sellers”), announced that they had completed the sale of Toast (Mail Order) Limited (“Toast”) to BESTSELLER UNITED A/S (“BESTSELLER), for gross proceeds of £23.3 million (the “Disposal”), comprising consideration of £21.3 million, payable in cash on completion, and the distribution to the Sellers by way of a pre-completion dividend (the “Dividend”) of surplus cash on Toast’s balance sheet of £2.0 million.
The Disposal represents an enterprise valuation (including the Dividend) of approximately 12.2x Toast’s EBITDA for the year ended 31 January 2018 and will enable French Connection to focus further on its core retail, wholesale and licensing businesses.
French Connection owned 75 per cent. and the Seatons owned 25 per cent. of the issued share capital of Toast. After the payment of management exit awards, the amounts due to the Seatons under the terms of the Toast shareholders’ agreement between Toast, the Seatons and French Connection and transaction costs, the Disposal, including the Dividend, resulted in net cash proceeds to French Connection of approximately £13.9 million.
For more information please visit: https://smithsquarepartners.com/transaction/sale-of-toast-mail-order-limited/
Smith Square Partners
Advised in the sale of
Toast (French Connection Group PLC (UK fashion retail group))
to