Condé Nast Portfolio
Home > Views > Blogs > Fashion Inc. > NexCen Now Owns The Great American Cookie
EMAIL
PRINT
RSS
SHARE
TEXT SIZE:
SHARE
Send a copy to me

Separate multiple email addresses (max 20) with commas.

0/1500

Main
Mentors for Models? How About These...   Fashion Breakfast
Jan 30 2008 9:28AM EST

NexCen Now Owns The Great American Cookie

NexCen, parent company of Bill Blass, has just bought the Great American Cookie company. It's another move towards building a company that will control risk via diversified holdings. It also owns Athlete's Foot, Waverly Home Furnishings, Pretzel Time, Maggie Moo ice cream and others. But more than that, it is proof that its suffering stock price -- currently at $4.7 down from a 52-week high of $13.18 -- won't stop the group from making acquisitions. The C.E.O. of NexCen is the Wall Street financier Bob D'Loren who helped build Iconix group out of Candie's shoes. When I spoke to him in December about the effect of the stock price on his ability to do deals, he shrugged off concerns saying he'd simply use more debt than stock and take advantage of the lower valuations of his targets. That's what he did. The cookie deal cost him $89 million in debt and only $1.1 million in stock to Mrs. Fields, the former parent company. The deal valued the Great American Cookie Company at 3.6 times revenues. NexCen will soon begin shopping the cookie concept to franchise partners around the globe and analyst Eric Beder at Brean Murray thinks a coffee or donut acquisition could come next. D'Loren told me he plans to buy more luxury fashion brands this year as well.

See more in

Loading...
Add Your Comment
View
 

Thank you for registering as a Portfolio.com Insider. Your comment has been added.

Create Your Public Profile


Archive

Previous
Jul
2009
Next


Also in Portfolio.com
Most Read
Most Emailed
Recently Commented

Newsletter Sign-Up
Inside Portfolio.com
In This Issue
Subscribe
Newsletter Sign-Up
Inside Portfolio.com
In This Issue
Subscribe