LB - L Brands Sells Controlling Stake in Victoria's Secret
L Brands (NYSE: LB) is selling a 55% stake in Victoria's Secret to private equity firm Sycamore Partners at a valuation of $1.1 billion, and its CEO and founder, Leslie Wexner, has announced he'll be stepping down.
After the transaction, the troubled retailer will be left with a 45% stake in the chain, and its Bath and Body Works. At times in its almost six-decade history, the company also owned a variety of other mall-based retail chains, including The Limited, Express, and Abercrombie & Fitch, but it spun off or sold nearly all of them. It closed upscale department store chain Henri Bendel just over a year ago.
The Ohio-based company had about $7 billion in revenue for fiscal 2019 and is currently valued at about $7 billion. Sycamore Partners has bought up other distresses retailers, among them The Limited, Nine West, and Staples.