French label IKKS needs to restructure debt, seeks fresh capital
Like many other companies under leveraged buyout, French ready-to-wear label IKKS must deal with its debt situation and extend the latter's maturities. The women’s, men’s and children’s fashion brand, owned since 2015 by private equity firm LBO France, is being buffeted on the markets, after a virtually stable 2017 was marred by a negative winter, and it is now officially looking for a way to refinance its debt.
IKKS’s quest is expected to continue until next September or October, when the amount of the finance raised to cover its debts will become known. According to our sources, IKKS is looking to raise approximately €70 million. In the meantime, the company has asked the banks to freeze all its debts.
In the 2017 financial year, IKKS managed to grow its revenue by only 0.8%, reaching €348 million, and EBITDA slumped to 11.7%. In 2018, EBITDA is expected to remain stable, according to a forecast published by IKKS to reassure financial analysts, based on the first five months of 2018. After last winter’s shortfall, revenue has in fact grown again, by 4.5%.
IKKS is hoping to reap the rewards of its reorganisation plan, which focuses chiefly on the label's growing international markets and on e-tail, a channel which reportedly grew 20% for IKKS in the last financial year and the first five months of 2018.
Come September or October, we shall be able to gauge IKKS’s ability to raise fresh capital to meet its financial commitments.
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