Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008
(This story was originally published on Tuesday.)
CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones)--Egyptian textile firm Arafa for Investments and Consultancies (AIVC.CI) said Tuesday its wholesale arm, Melka International, is conducting due diligence to acquire the Pierre Cardin men's formal wear license by August.
Melka is looking to acquire the six-year license from its current holder, Worth Valley Menswear, a statement e-mailed by Arafa said.
Melka acquired the Pierre Cardin license for men's sportswear, casual wear and formal shirts from the John Langford group this July.
The acquisition of the formal wear license would consolidate all major Pierre Cardin menswear licenses for the U.K. and Ireland within Arafa and allow the company to position Pierre Cardin as a lead price point designer brand for those markets.
Arafa expects the Pierre Cardin business to bring an additional $18 million per year of wholesale turnover to the group with a return on sales of 10%.
Arafa is already present in the U.K., Italy and Scandinavian markets and is looking to enter Germany, France, Spain and Turkey.
The firm, which paid GBP21.5 million to buy the U.K.-based Specialty Retail Group, including a provision of GBP3.5 million for operating costs, in March, makes most of its sales in the U.K.
Arafa's exports account for 90% of its sales with almost 70% to the U.K through stores that include Harrods, Selfridges, House of Fraser, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and Burtons.
Almost 30% of the company's exports are sold to the U.S - mainly at stores such as Bloomingdales, Macy's, Target, JC Penney, The Gap and Banana Republic.
-By Maha El Dahan, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires, +20122267850, mahaeldahan@yahoo.com
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
23-07-08 0434GMT
