Next buys women's fashion brand Lipsy for $31 mln
LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - British clothing retailer Next (NXT.L) has bought young women's fashion brand Lipsy for an initial sum of 17.4 million pounds ($30.8 million) in cash, it said on Thursday.
Next, which runs more than 480 stores across Britain as well as a home-shopping business, said it would pay 14 million pounds for Lipsy's share capital and repay 3.4 million of loan notes.
It will pay further, undisclosed amounts in 2012, 2013 and 2014 depending on Lipsy's profit performance for each of those years.
Lipsy, whose best sellers currently include a silk tiered strappy dress, curve zip pocket jeans and a leather military jacket, sells products through a variety of retailers as well as directly through its Web site.
The firm, with turnover of 20 million pounds in the year ended June, is opening its first store in London in November.
Next said there were no plans to stop Lipsy supplying existing customers or to sell its products in Next stores. Lipsy products already feature in the Next Directory home shopping business, and this will continue.
At 1225 GMT, Next shares were up 5.9 percent at 1,121 pence, valuing the business at about 2.2 billion pounds. (Reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by Quentin Bryar)
