Shareholders in maternity wear specialist Seraphine are being offered 30p per share by the retailer’s private equity investor Mayfair Equity Partners in a bid to take the business private.
The value of Seraphine’s shares has dropped by 95 per cent over the last 12 months as the business has struggled with rising costs and falling demand. Mayfair had backed an MBO led by David Williams with Seraphine founder Cecile Renaud becoming president. It was then valued at c£50m as against its current valuation of less than £5m.
Sharon Flood, Seraphine chair said: “Seraphine has faced an extraordinary convergence of challenges since listing in 2021 including the global supply chain crisis, the cost-of-living crisis and substantial inflation in online marketing costs.
“Whilst the whole retail sector has been affected by these issues, Seraphine, a relatively smaller company new to the London Stock Exchange with a large reliance on eCommerce, has, we believe, been disproportionately challenged.”
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