Billabong offloads bikini brand Tigerlily for $60m

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Feb 23, 2017

Battling surf group Billabong has reportedly sold its bikini brand Tigerlily for AU$60 million (US$46.15 million), much less than previous valuations given by experts.

According the Australian Financial Review, Billabong has sold its Tigerlily brand to Crescent Capital Partners for $60 million -- some $40 million less than previous valuations.

However, Billabong did manage to offload Tigerlily for ten times more than its purchase price of $5.8 million -- when Billabong took over the promising bikini outfit from founder Jodhi Meares in 2007 -- and more than its book value of just $3.6 million.

Specialist firm Houlihan Lokey acted on Billabong's behalf for the Crescent Capital deal, with Gilbert + Tobin and PwC advising Crescent.

In late December, it was reported that Tigerlily had attracted the eye of LVMH's private equity arm L Capital Asia, with the AFR adding the investor group had unofficially entered into talks Houlihan Lokey. All parties at the time declined to comment.

Crescent Capital Partners is a Sydney-based private equity firm investing in middle market companies located in Australia and New Zealand with enterprise values between A$50 million and A$300 million. It currently owns mineral makeup brand Nude by Nature, as well as several health, tech and manufacturing brands. It sold its stake in online surf retailer SurfStitch in late 2015.

Over the past nine years, Tigerlily generated sales of $30 million and earnings of $7 million to $8 million for Billabong. The brand has also entered foreign markets such as New Zealand, The Philippines and Hong Kong.

In its last fiscal year, Billabong reported a revenue of $1.1 billion, with an EBITDA of AUD57.5 million. For the 2016-17 fiscal year, which kicked off with a weak first four months, the group expects an EBITDA ranging between $60 million and $65 million.

Billabong will release its December-half results on Friday.