Patriarch is Latest Spiegel Owner
The women’s brands company has changed hands several times in recent years, this time, to the Tilton portfolio.
June 19, 2009
Spiegel Brands and its affiliates will be bought by Patriarch Partners, a private equity firm.
Patriarch’s chief executive, Lynn Tilton, said her PE firm will continue to support the company’s online and catalog operations for its Newport News, Shape fx and Spiegel customers; the affiliates also sell women’s fashion. Patriarch has made multiple plays—or attempts, at least—in the consumer space in recent months.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed and Patriarch declined to comment on specifics by press time.
Earlier this year, Patriarch was initially declared the winner of bankrupt Polaroid’s assets, only to have the presiding judge throw out its bid in favor of another round of bidding that led to Gordon Brothers and Hilco winning the company.
In 2008, Patriarch invested in Beverage Marketing USA, makers of AriZona Iced Tea products. Altogether, its portfolio manages $6 billion of assets and is home to dozens of companies.
A representative said the Spiegel Brands play is part of Tilton’s direct-to-consumer strategy for the portfolio. The newest Patriarch asset will be used to market its other consumer products.
Spiegel was once owned by the same parent company as outdoor clothing apparel retailer Eddie Bauer Holdings which also filed for bankruptcy protection this week.
Eddie Bauer has announced plans to sell to PE shop CCMP Capital Advisors. While Tilton’s private equity shop has a long-stated mandate of buying companies out of distress, the increase in defaulting consumer companies has attracted the likes of new bidders—namely, CCMP—to one of the few active spaces in M&A as of late.
Spiegel Brands has changed hands with regularity; it was owned by Granite Creek Partners prior to Patriarch’s buy, and less than a year prior, was owned by Golden Gate Capital. Spiegel filed for Chapter 11 in 2003, also.
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