The American private equity The Carlyle Group has agreed to acquire a majority stake in the British luxury, streetwear and sportswear retailer END., which operates the website www.endclothing.com.
The stake is being acquired from the founders Christiaan Ashworth and John Parker, who will retain a significant minority stake and remain co-CEOs of the company. Index Ventures, which currently holds a minority stake, will fully exit.
The transaction, for which no details were released, will close on April 1. According to the news agency Bloomberg, the deal values END. at more than £750 million pounds (€867m-$1.03bn).
END. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Newcastle, England. The company partners with more than 500 designers and brands. The company employs over 650 people in the U.K. and ships to over 100 countries worldwide. In the year to March 31, 2020, END. generated revenues of £170 million pounds (€197m-$234m), up by 27 percent year-over-year, of which 65 percent related to sales outside of the U.K.. The net profit grew by 20 percent to £26 million (€30.2m-$35.8m)
Carlyle said that it will support END.’s expansion at home and abroad. A core component of Carlyle’s strategy has been to grow brands through international expansion. The private equity recently sold the sneaker brand Golden Goose to the private equity Permira and the streetwear brand Supreme to VF Corp.
