Arcadia brand Evans acquired by City Chic in £23m deal

The Arcadia Group has agreed the sale of Evans’ brand, online and wholesale business to City Chic Collective for approximately £23m, with the transaction expected to be completed on December 23.

Evans’ store network is not included in the acquisition, but its stores will continue to trade for the time being.

City Chic is a retail group specialising in plus-sized women’s fashion. The group operates a 96-strong store network across Australia and New Zealand, alongside an online and wholesale operation in the US and wholesale business with European and UK partners.

The group’s stable of brands include City Chic, Avenue, CCX, Hips & Curves and Fox & Royal.

The acquisition of Evans by City Chic comes shortly after speculation that Next and US investor Davidson Kempner had entered advanced talks about a joint bid for the Arcadia empire ahead of today’s revised deadline.

According to Sky News, the US investment firm would provide the bulk of the funding required to complete the takeover and own the majority of the business after any deal.

It is understood that Next has also engaged with other investment firms about a possible bid for the fashion group, including private equity firm Carlyle and retail turnaround specialist Alteri Investors.

The sales process, which is being run by administrator Deloitte, has also drawn interest from firms including Mike Ashley’s Fraser Group, US department store Barneys’ owner Authentic Brands and Boohoo.

A statement from Arcadia said that all brands across the group had received “significant expressions of interest” and that joint administrators “expect to provide a further update in the new year.”