L Brands is on course to sell Victoria’s Secret to Sycamore Partners. Sycamore Partners is expected to buy 55 per cent of Victoria’s Secret and take the struggling business private. L Brands is expected to keep a 45 per cent stake in the separate company, which will include the Pink chain.
After shedding several brands in recent years, L Brands’ operations would be reduced to running the Bath & Body Works chain. This is a sharp fall for a business that operates hundreds of stores, elevated the profiles of supermodels like Tyra Banks and Gisele Bundchen, and generated about $7 billion in annual sales in its last fiscal year.
Victoria’s Secret, with its emphasis on supermodels wearing padded bras, has long dominated the US lingerie market but has struggled in recent years with falling sales. It has lost some women to upstart brands that promote comfort and inclusivity. Last year, Victoria’s Secret canceled its televised fashion show. In the nine month period Bath & Body Works revenue rose 12 per cent while the rest of the company’s revenue declined.
Sycamore Partners, founded in 2011, has scooped up several troubled apparel brands and bricks-and-mortar chains, including The Limited, Hot Topic, Nine West and Staples.
