One Year After The Big Show Was Shut Down, "Half Price" Was Sold.

Victoria's Secret, the most famous underwear brand in the world, will never be short of news and hot spots in Vitoria. Over the past few days, the social media has been frequently registered in China and the United States. This time, Wei Ming stood at the turning point of fate and was beset with difficulties both inside and outside.

In the micro-blog hot search in February 10, 2020, more than 100 supermodels jointly charged the "hidden rules". On the night before February 9th, the negotiations between the L Brands of the parent company and the Sycamore Partner of New York's private equity giant were on the other side of the globe.

New York Times (New York Time) sources said that the deal between L Brands and Sycamore Partners is about to reach an agreement and will be announced as soon as possible this week.

If the agreement is reached, the 43 year old, the most famous and sexiest lingerie brand in the world will usher in its biggest turning point in the year.

Over the past few days, the news of the upcoming sale of the company has intensified. The L Brands stock exchange of the parent company of the Wei family rose sharply at 20:00 on February 5th, rising by 5.04%, with a turnover rate of 1.67% and an amplitude of 6.46%. In February 10th, it rose 2.37% to $24.14 per share.

　　 Management scandals continued, and the results were down.

The news that Wei is about to sell is not groundless. In May 2019, the official announcement of the official announcement was made that the TV show was released from 1995 until now. In November, the secret show was completely suspended and the world was in an uproar. In the same period, market rumors said that the virgin parent company is looking for new buyers for the brand.

The focus of this transaction is also on the change of core personnel. At present, it is not clear whether Leslie Wexner, the 82 year old founder, continues to serve. There was news that he was discussing his resignation as chief executive and was seeking strategic solutions for the company. It is also reported that one of the requirements of Sycamore Partners is to let the man step down.

At present, Leslie Wexner owns about 17% of L Brands, the largest shareholder of the group, and the longest steering CEO in the standard & Poor's 500 index (S&P 500) company. Leslie Wexner's management has been widely criticized for its poor performance during its term of office. In addition, he is closely related to Jeffrey Epstein, a US banker who has been exposed to sexual assault on underage women. The latter has managed wealth for more than 20 years, and has also brought doubt to Jeffrey Epstein's brand image.

New York Times reported last week that dozens of current and former employees accused CMO Ed Razek of sexual harassment in the former Vitoria, which may be one reason why Leslie Wexner is suspected of selling the brand.

In addition to the scandalous scandal of the management of the management department, the poor performance is the main reason for this change. In 2019, its sales volume was about $7 billion 400 million. Because of poor performance, the management has closed dozens of North American shops.

Other brands of the parent company L Brands also performed poorly. The 123 year old Henri Bendel was closed in January 2019. The group's share price fell 29% in 2019, and its market value shrank from $29 billion in 2015 to $6 billion.

Foreign media even judged that L Brands was one of the worst performing retail stocks in 2019, and its share price fell by more than 30% in 2019.

As for L Brands's portfolio, Vitoria's secret is no longer its strongest performance brand. The company's income is borne by Bath&Body Works, a personal care store. L Brands also has lifestyle brand Pink. The fate of the two brands is also outstanding.

　 The show is history, with a record of 12 million 500 thousand.

The secret of Vitoria born in 1977 is already 43 years old. Frankly speaking, what is the essence of the product? Is it underwear or walking show? Unfortunately, most people's first reaction is not the former.

Since the first underwear fashion show successfully held in New York in 1995, the era of underwear belonging to the "secret of Vitoria" has been prelude to this. In January 1999, the show was first broadcast on the official website in real time, more than 1 million hits in 30 minutes, and even resulted in paralysis of the network. This is one of the best cases in the history of marketing. It has won the best marketing award of Barndweek Interactive Marketing Award. Since then, both fame and wealth have gained fame and wealth, both in terms of market position and brand influence.

There is also an important reason for Wei Wei's regret. Apart from underwear, Wei Ming is famous all over the world for training a large number of excellent models. Even if there are no secrets, whether Chinese supermodels such as Liu Wen, Xi Mengyao and He Sui can occupy a place in the world stage is unknown. At the time of the highest traffic volume, the company has created a record of 12 million 500 thousand super high ratings. This is the stage for hundreds of supermodels to become famous.

However, in recent years, the ratings of the company declined and fell. In 2017, it has dropped by 30% compared with the previous years. In 2018, it fell to a new low, and the number of people watching fell to 3 million 270 thousand. After the abolition of the "secret show" in 2019, the secret show that lasted for 24 years has gone down in the long history.

In addition to the regret of the termination of the secret show, the outside criticism of Wei also saw that the brand had lost its sense of fashion. For decades, it has been famous for its sex appeal, and its competitors have long been comfortable with the underwear industry.

He once hoped to restore the decline of his performance through overseas expansion, and even put the 2017's secret show in Shanghai. Unfortunately, Wei Mei did not understand the aesthetic and demand of Chinese market in choosing underwear.

According to CBNData's "lingerie consumption trend report", the consumption habits of Chinese personal clothing are significantly different from those of western countries, and per capita consumption is less than half of that of western countries. In the west, underwear consumption accounts for a large proportion of clothing consumption, generally reaching over 20%. For example, France is 22%, the annual consumption of French women for underwear is about 1 billion 700 million euros, and British women spend 112 euros on underwear every year, while Chinese women spend only 5% of their clothing consumption.

　 The final price is $20-33.

The Sycamore Partners, a private Holdings Company based in New York, specializes in investment through various private equity strategies, and is mainly invested in the consumer and retail sectors. The most notable ones are leveraged buyout, bad takeover, complex corporate spin offs and debt investments. The company's official website shows that Sycamore Partners currently manages more than $15 billion in capital and about 20 investment professionals.

In recent years, the most famous case of Sycamore Partners is the acquisition of global office supplies retailer Staples in 2017 at a price of US $6 billion 900 million. Prior to that, Staples occupied almost half of the office supplies market in the United States. Most of the famous giant companies in the United States were its customers. It had 1529 stores in the most important North American market, and its revenue in 2016 was US $18 billion 250 million.

After the acquisition, Sycamore Partners also flexibly reduced Staples's retail business while keeping its strongest "B to B" business sector.

Earlier, Sycamore Partners also bought HotTopin, a new fashion clothing retailer at $14 a share, with a total transaction volume of $600 million. The deal is also seen as a purchase related to HotTopic's life and death.

It is these past cases that have participated in the Sycamore Partners acquisition MKMPartners analyst Roxanne Meyer foreign media said that the secret of Vitoria's acquisition reached the possibility of very large, Sycamore Partners's management is very supportive of the acquisition.

Meyer also explained the reason for the high success rate of the transaction. "According to the past acquisition history of Sycamore Partners, its acquired brands often survive in cracks, poor performance, unprofitable development and coercion in the market competition environment."

At present, Vitoria's Secret parent L Brands has a market capitalization of $6 billion 674 million in the US stock market and Meyer at a price of 0.3 times -0.5 times, which is considered to be a final sale price of $2 billion -34 billion.

Foreign media CNBC commented that if the final acquisition of Sycamore Partners was reached, it would be a bet for the company to resume its brand vitality.