Silverfleet buys La Fée Maraboutée for €65m

The company's founder and joint CEOs also made a "significant" investment as part of the buyout, which was completed through the Féeric newco.

Silverfleet stated it had been particularly impressed by LFM's brand and collections, as well as its established customer base both in France and abroad. The GP had been monitoring the French distribution market closely and became involved in an auction process managed by Aélios Finance on behalf of the vendor, a family office Silverfleet was already familiar with.

The sale process mainly attracted private equity players. Silverfleet teamed up with former Givenchy CEO Georges Spitzer, which enabled the GP to gain greater insight into LFM's specific market.

LFM will now look to pursue its international development in Europe, Asia and the Middle-East. The group will also aim to develop its network of affiliate stores.

Silverfleet currently invests from its €670m vehicle, which closed in 2009. This is the fund's fifth transaction and the vehicle is now invested at around 50%.

The GP is familiar with French retail assets, having invested in the €230m tertiary buyout of jewellery retailer Histoire d'Or from Apax Partners and Alpha Associés in 2006. It reaped a 3x return multiple and 27% IRR in mid-2010 when Bridgepoint and Apax Partners acquired Histoire d'Or to merge it with Marc Orian, in a deal that valued the new group at €600m.

In the UK, Silverfleet has notably backed clothing retailer Oasis in the early 2000s and is still invested in footwear chain Office, which it acquired at the end of 2010 for a consideration understood to be in the £150m region.

Debt
Senior debt was provided by a banking syndicate comprising LCL, Crédit Agricole Loire/Haute Loire, Crédit Agricole Centre Est, Banque Neuflize OBC, Banque Européenne du Crédit Mutuel and Banque Populaire Loire et Lyonnais.

Mezzanine funding was provided by Trocadero Capital, the mezzanine arm of 123Venture.

Company
Founded in 1996, LFM is a wholesaler and retailer of women's fashion products sourced exclusively from Italy. The brand is distributed via 1,700 French and international wholesale partners, as well as a 90-strong store network – including 35 own and affiliate stores and 55 franchise stores.

LFM generated sales of €46m in 2012. The company's turnover has grown by more than a third since 2010.

People
Maïré Deslandes and Alexandre Lefebvre led the deal for Silverfleet. Georges Spitzer will join LFM's supervisory board as chairman and invested in the buyout. Thierry Pérusat and Jean-Christophe Astruc are joint CEOs of LFM.

Advisers
Equity – Latham & Watkins, Thomas Forschbach, Gaetan Gianasso, Michel Houdayer, Simon Servan-Schreiber (Legal); Advention, Alban Neveux, Marion Duchein, Timothée de Courlon (Commercial due diligence); Geospi, Georges Spitzer (Commercial due diligence); PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hervé Mader, Pascal Gounon, Ghislaine Chevalier, Mike Eledjam, Rachida Injaren (Financial due diligence); Landwell, Catherine Olive, Michel-Pierre Lanternier (Legal); Anne-Valérie Attias-Assouline, Marc-Olivier Roux, Mathieu Norest (Tax); Bernard Borrely, Pauline Guilbaud (Social due diligence); Marsh, Humbert D'Autichamp, Sophie Tournilhac (Insurance due diligence); Aramis, Charles Canetti (IT due diligence).
Vendors – Aélios Finance, Thibaut de Monclin, Hadrien Mollard (M&A); LMBE, Nathalie Le Bris (Legal); STC Partners, Stéphane de Lassus (Legal); PricewaterhouseCoopers, Erwan Colder (Financial due diligence).
Management – Paul Hastings, Olivier Deren, Pascal de Moidray (Legal); XK Corporate Finance, Alain Pichot, François Poupée (Corporate finance).
Senior debt – Gide Loyrette Nouel, Chucri Serhal (Legal).
Mezzanine – Gode Gaillard Solle Maraux & Associés, Marc Baffreau, Hélène Testeil (Legal).

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