Silverfleet Capital

Oasis

Business overview

Oasis Stores plc was a quoted ladies fashion retailer with two brands, Oasis and Coast, both aimed at the upper end of the high street market but targeting 18-30 year olds and 30 years plus respectively. Oasis traded from 130 stores in the UK (a mixture of own stores and department store concessions) and concessions in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. Coast was a relatively new, loss-making brand, trading from 18 concessions and 9 own stores in the UK only.

Investment rationale

The Oasis group had been established by three highly successful retail entrepreneurs, but by 2000-2001 it was struggling with the next phase of its development. Hampered by poor management controls and obsolete stock issues the Company was required to issue a profit warning to the London Stock Exchange in 2001.

The company had recently recruited an experienced, professional CEO, Derek Lovelock, who was ambitious to conduct a public-to-private buyout, and our extensive sector knowledge in retail, and in particular in fashion retail, made us an obvious financial partner for them. The buyout was completed in 2001.

Silverfleet Capital had the retail insight to see that the business’ internal reporting issues could be resolved and were prepared to support Derek as he did this. In addition we were convinced that it was right to allow the management team time to see if Coast could be turned into a profitable brand.

Value creation

The public-to-private acquisition was launched in 2001, in the face of some minority shareholder dissent. Our extensive public-to-private transaction experience and some decisive action allowed us to successfully complete the deal.

Straightforward dialogue with management and our retail experience allowed us to rapidly improve the internal controls within the business, reduce working capital and develop a growth strategy for both brands. Coast was successfully repositioned as an up-market brand and swiftly moved from being loss-making to being highly profitable. We supported the rapid roll-out of the brand and by exit Coast had grown from 30 outlets to 123 outlets. We also worked with management to develop the more mature Oasis brand – through the roll-out of new stores and concessions, and also through range extensions into accessories, lingerie and shoes. We also successfully negotiated a joint venture in China for the roll-out of Oasis clothing into Chinese department stores.

Outcome

In 2003 we conducted a focused auction of trade and private equity purchasers. The auction resulted in the sale of the business to the Icelandic investment group, Baugur, for £150 million – a return of 3.6x cost and an 88% IRR.

The deal was awarded Middle Market Buy-Out of the Year 2004 by the EVCA/Real Deals.