Teen Jewelry Retailer Claire’s Acquired for $3.1 Billion
IDEX Online, Israel
(March 21, ’07, 6:27 Edahn Golan)
Claire’s Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CLE), an international specialty retailer of low cost costume jewelry and accessories, has agreed to be acquired by an affiliate of Apollo Management, L.P., a New York based private equity firm The affiliate will pay $33 per share totaling approximately $3.1 billion.
“After reviewing the final bids, our board of directors unanimously concluded… that this transaction with Apollo is in the best interests of our shareholders,” said Claire’s Co-Chairs and Co-CEO’s Bonnie and Marla Schaefer.
The company was founded by their father.
The Schaefer family, which owns a significant percentage of the voting power of Claire’s equity, has entered into a separate agreement to vote its shares in favor of the merger.
Claire’s Stores sells jewelry and accessories to tweens, teens and young adult females through its two store concepts: Claire’s and Icing by Claire’s. While the latter operates only in North America, Claire’s operates internationally, with approximately 3,000 stores in North America, Europe, Japan and the Middle East. Claire’s items sell in the U.S. for under $15.
Apollo Management is a private investment partnership that manages capital on behalf of a group of institutional investors and the principals of Apollo. Since its inception in 1990, Apollo has invested in excess of $16 billion of equity capital in companies representing a wide variety of industries. Apollo is in the process of investing its sixth corporate fund.
Apollo has had partnerships with management teams operating retail and consumer-oriented businesses, including an investment in Zale Corporation.
