Karen Millen’s Icelandic owner is mulling a sale of the high street fashion chain, after receiving multiple offers for it.
Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank, is reviewing its options after it received unsolicited offers for the fashion retailer, according to Sky News.
The retailer employs around 1,700 staff and has 57 shops and a number of concessions in the UK. It made pre-tax losses of £9.5m on £161.9m of sales in the 52 weeks to February 2018.
Any sale of Karen Millen would include Coast, the fashion label it bought out of administration last year. Kaupthing also owns brands Oasis and Warehouse.
Karen Millen launched the business in 1981 with her husband Kevin Stanford, and in 2004 the pair sold it to Oasis for around £100m. She subsequently brought a legal action against Kaupthing, after trying to launch a new fashion label under her name, and was declared bankrupt two years ago.
Kaupthing last explored the option of selling its multiple fashion businesses in late 2017, but abandoned its efforts, insisting at the time the market “does not currently recognise the value” of its brands.
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