Fat Face to be taken over by its lenders, to get new funding

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 11, 2020

Fat Face is on the verge of being taken over by its lenders, that include a syndicate of banks and debt funds, in a debt-for-equity swap designed to drastically reduce the firm’s borrowings and help it weather the coronavirus storm.

The company, which has been controlled by private equity firm Bridgepoint for 13 years, has borrowings of £120 million and Sky News reported that Bridgepoint has put several rounds of funding into the company since 2007. It also said that the lenders told the private equity firm it would need to commit a further £20 million to Fat Face to retain control of the business.

The new owners reportedly include Lloyds Bank and Goldman Sachs as well as Alcentra and Oak Hill debt funds, and they’re said to have committed £15 million in new financing to the 32-year-old casualwear firm.

Fat Face is chaired by Stuart Rose, the former Arcadia and M&S boss, and has around 215 stores with 2,000 employees. Liz Evans is its CEO.

The news about it came on the same day that we learned Quiz Clothing would be putting its retail stores into administration and that Monsoon Accessorize had been bought out of administration by its founder, but with the loss of 545 jobs.

And those are unlikely to be the last distressed fashion firms to see big change as a result of the crisis, as some go under and others, just like Fat Face, come under the control of their lenders.