Ted Baker selects preferred bidder, Sycamore drops out

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 23, 2022

The process to take over Ted Baker is continuing with the UK retailer on Monday announcing that it has selected a preferred bidder. But it didn’t say who that is.

However, we do know the private equity group that kicked off the bidding with several unsolicited offers a few months ago, isn’t going to win the prize.

Ted Baker said that “the board confirms that Sycamore Partners Management LP is no longer participating in the formal sale process”.

Sycamore had offered around £250 million for the company earlier this year and clearly hoped to pick up Ted baker on the cheap. At the time, its shares were trading at less than 90p each, suppressing its overall market value and making the £250 million offer look theoretically attractive. But it wasn’t attractive enough for Ted Baker’s board, which rejected Sycamore’s offers as undervaluing the firm. 

The shares opened at around 143p on Monday, valuing it at almost £265 million, which was still far below the lofty valuation it had in late 2015 when the shares were 20 times their current price.

In an update release to the London Stock Exchange on Monday, Ted Baker said: “On 27 April 2022, the company announced that it had received a number of non-binding proposals from potentially interested parties and was inviting a focused selection of such parties to enter into a due diligence process. As part of this process, the company has now received a number of revised non-binding proposals.

“Following a review of these proposals, the board has selected a preferred counter-party to take forward into a process of confirmatory due diligence. This process is likely to take several weeks.” 

It continued to repeat that there’s “no certainty that an offer will be made, nor as to the terms on which any offer will be made”.

It also said it reserves the right to “alter or terminate the process at any time and in such cases will make an announcement as appropriate”.