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RAPAPORT... Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. reported that sales increased 4.2 percent year on year to $4.84 billion for the fiscal year that ended on August 2. Same-store sales at the group's specialty retail stores rose 3.4 percent, while online comparable-store sales jumped 12.9 percent. Cost of goods sold jumped 8.5 percent to $3.25 billion. The luxury retailer reported a loss of $147.2 million compared with a profit of $163.7 million one year earlier. The group operates the physical and online properties of Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, Cusp and Last Call, and signed an agreement to purchase the luxury business Theresa and mytheresa.com from Christoph and Susanne Botschen and Acton Capital Partners for approximately $190 million (EUR 150 million). The purchase includes the Theresa flagship luxury store in Munich, Germany and the transaction is expected to close later this year. Mytheresa.com, which the Botschens launched in 2006, expanded the reach of their Theresa store and now ships fashion products to more than 120 countries. Theresa, which opened in 1987, records annual revenue of approximately $130 million. The mytheresa.com online store and Theresa store will be run as an independent subsidiary of Neiman Marcus. “With the acquisition of mytheresa.com, Neiman Marcus Group takes yet another strategically significant step towards our long range international strategy to more broadly serve the affluent customer around the world. We are excited to add mytheresa.com and the Theresa store to our prestigious portfolio of brands,” said Karen Katz, the president and CEO of the Neiman Marcus Group. "Christoph and Susanne Botschen have brilliantly built and positioned mytheresa.com and Theresa by catering to the international luxury customer who is young and fashion savvy through incomparable editing of fashion and the trends, along with superior service. As importantly, they have assembled a talented and accomplished team that will be a great cultural fit with our company." The Botschens stated that they were both pleased to have found a strategic, experienced partner that understands the luxury fashion DNA of mytheresa.com and the Theresa store. Jan-Gisbert Schultze, the managing partner at Acton Capital Partners, added, “We are thrilled with mytheresa.com’s outstanding performance since our investment four years ago. Today it certainly is one of the world’s leading online stores for luxury fashion. Neiman Marcus Group is ideally suited to continue mytheresa.com’s fantastic success story.”
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