M1 Group buys shares
in Pepe Jeans and Hackett

Deal valued at $794 million

Local firm M1 Group is finalizing a deal to buy shares in the Spanish fashion brand, Pepe Jeans and in the British brand, Hackett London.

According to Hisham Ramadan, General Manager of Emerge Distributions, an M1 Group company, the deal will be finalized within the ten coming days. “The deal’s value is around €700 million (̴ $794 million),” he said and that M1 is buying less than half of the shares in the two brands.

Pepe Jeans, whose majority share is held by private equity firms Torreal, Arta Capital and L Capital, was launched in London as a weekend roadside stall on Portobello Road in 1973.

Hackett was founded in 1979 by Jeremy Hackett and Ashley Lloyd-Jennings, also on Portobello Road.

In 1992, Compagnie Financière Richemont, the Swiss-based luxury goods holding company founded in 1988, acquired Hackett. The company also owns Dunhill, Baume & Mercier, Cartier, IWC International Watch Co. Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, and Piaget, among others. After the acquisition, Hackett Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of Richemont. In 2005, Richemont entered into an agreement to sell Hackett Limited to the Spanish investment company, Torreal.

M1 operates a diversified portfolio of real estate, telecoms, fashion and transport assets. It was established in 2007 by former Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his brother Taha Mikati, who also founded telecom operator Investcom. M1's fashion portfolio includes the French high-end tailor Façonnable, which it acquired for $210 million in 2007. M1 also holds ten percent of MTN, one of Africa’s largest telecom firms.