G-III joins Arcadia takeover race

New York-based G-III Apparel has reportedly entered the race to buy Arcadia and is among four top contenders that also include Next, Boohoo and US-based Authentic Brands. However, the company hasn't confirmed its interest publicly.

The company owns the DKNY brand and also holds licences for big-name labels Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Karl Lagerfeld and Levi’s.

Its interest in Arcadia was reported by the Sunday Telegraph, which said that G-III has a ‘war chest’ of around $800 million to help fund any buy. The group itself had pre-pandemic sales of $3.1 billion and a stock market value of $1.3 billion.

But the company closed over 200 US stores last summer and said at the time that its “wholesale business, anchored by our five global power brands: DKNY, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Karl Lagerfeld, will continue to be the primary growth and profit engine.”

That raises questions over how focused it would be on retail stores should it win the Arcadia brand auction.

There are justifiable fears in British retail that some of the main contenders for Arcadia (such as Boohoo) have little or no interest in running physical shops.

Another issue that might make bring a G-III purchase of the business some negative PR in Britain is that the company has links to the Trump family’s fashion businesses. In fact, G-III’s chairman Morris Goldfarb was at one point rumoured to be getting an ambassador’s post under President Trump, although that didn’t happen.

Regardless of who wins the Arcadia race, it’s expected to be finalised by the end of next month with administrator Deloitte selecting the parties to go forward to the next bidding round at some point in January.

G-III joins Arcadia takeover race - report

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