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NEW YORK, United States — Apax Partners, one of Europe's largest private equity firms, plans to sell its stake in Tommy Hilfiger's China operations to joint-venture partner PVH Corp., people with knowledge of the matter said.
Apax, which owns about half of the China venture, is exercising an option to sell its holding to PVH and should complete the transaction by the end of the year, according to the people. The terms of the deal would give the China venture an equity value of about $500 million, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
PVH, the owner of the Tommy Hilfiger brand, is considering an initial public offering of the China operations as early as next year after buying Apax’s stake, one of the people said.
An agreement would end Apax’s nine-year association with fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger. The firm took the company private in May 2006 in a deal valued at about $1.6 billion. In March 2010, the buyout firm sold most of the company to PVH, a deal valued at $3 billion, while retaining a stake in the China operations.
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PVH, which also owns consumer brands including Calvin Klein and Speedo, reported $8.24 billion of sales in the most recent financial year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Global revenue from Tommy Hilfiger was $3.58 billion last year, accounting for about 43 percent of PVH sales, the data show.
A spokesman for Apax declined to comment, while representatives for PVH didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
By Kiel Porter, Vinicy Chan; editors: Elizabeth Fournier, Ben Scent, Elizabeth Wollman, Timothy Sifert.
