The $6.9 billion (€6 billion) sale to Sycamore Partners has been described by the Wall Street Journal as this year’s largest leveraged buyout.
After months of financial difficulties and legal wrangling, the American multinational office supplies retailer, Staples Inc., has seen its shareholders approve a $6.9 billion(€6 billion) sale to private equity firm Sycamore Partners, which already owns a number of other retailers including Hot Topic, Nine West and Talbots.
The Worcester Business Journal reported that according to the retailer’s SEC filing its shareholders approved the deal by a margin of more than 24-to-1, despite the previous lodging of a complaint by a number of shareholders reported on by The Recycler.
This new deal, which will make Staples a private company, is a move aimed at resurrecting the retailer’s flagging fortunes. Last year Staples experienced losses of $615 million (€509 million), forcing it to close 48 stores; this year another 70 are up for closure.
Staples’ financial difficulties have been caused both by competition with Amazon and alterations in both business and consumer buying habits.
As WBJ reports, the deal with Sycamore Partners is expected to be closed by the end of this year, in what the Wall Street Journal has dubbed the biggest leveraged buyout announced so far in 2017.