UK's Next acquires Warburg Pincus' 34% stake in Reiss Group

Upon completion, Next's holding in Reiss will increase from 51 per cent to 72 per cent. The Reiss family's stake in the business will go up to 22 per cent, and the Reiss management team will hold a 6 per cent equity share. Reiss's financial results will subsequently be consolidated into the Next plc accounts, Next said in a media release.

Simon Wolfson, Next chief executive, expressed his enthusiasm for the deal, stating, "Reiss has performed exceptionally well since we first invested in March 2021. We look forward to continuing to develop the business with Christos and the Reiss team."

Adarsh Sarma, managing director and Rianne Schipper, principal, Warburg Pincus said: "Warburg Pincus is proud to have supported Reiss through its growth journey since 2016. We would like to thank Christos, Jonathan and the management team for their unrelenting hard work and commitment - they have done an outstanding job, consistently demonstrating category-leading performance.”

Christos Angelides, Reiss chief executive said: "We are appreciative of the excellent partnership with Warburg Pincus over the past seven years - their expertise has been instrumental to our sustained development and they have been a strong and trusted partner. We look forward to continuing to focus on creating authentic and timeless collections for our customers and over the next few months we will be launching a number of new initiatives that will both expand the breadth and choice of our collections worldwide."

The acquisition comes after a strong period of growth for Reiss. Under the leadership of CEO Christos Angelides, the company recorded total sales of £324.6 million in the year to January 28, 2023, up 26.4 per cent from the previous year.

Reiss will continue to be headquartered in London and will maintain its creative independence. Christos Angelides, who previously worked for Next for 28 years, will continue as the CEO of Reiss.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)