When Sexy Lingerie And Angel Supermodels Are No Longer Popular, Who Will Take Them?

When the clothes and shadows are dispersed, they are waiting to be sold.

In February 9th, according to CNBC, L Brands, the parent company of the American fashion underwear brand Vitoria (Victoria "s Secret", hereinafter referred to as "Wei Wei") has been close to the US private Holdings Company Sycamore Partners, and is expected to be sold this week.

The transaction has not yet been officially settled, but the general opinion of the market is that this transaction can be made. According to a forecast issued by the MKM Partners analyst of the US Investment Research Institute in February 10th, the price of Sycamore Partners's acquisition of virgin could be between $2 billion and $3 billion 400 million.

The downhill of the company has gone four years: the declining ratings of the big show, the decline in brand and parent company performance, and the negative rumours at the executive level. The rumors of L Brands's divestiture and sale have been broken up for another year, and the next question is who will take the risk? What kind of change is this brand that represents the sexiest sex in the past?

　 When beauty and sex are no longer pure

Since 2019, the negative news about the secret has not ceased.

Last year, L Brands officially suspended the landmark "secret show". Prior to this, the annual exhibition of Wei Ming has been held for 24 years. When it was first broadcast on ABC television in 2001, it reached 12 million 400 thousand people, which is still the highest record in the history of the show. However, the ratings of the show declined by 30% in 2015, and then declined year by year.

In terms of performance, according to the latest holiday season performance Bulletin released by L Brands (November 2019 and December), the same store sales of the same brand declined by 12%, the worst performance since the 2017 financial year Q3, and dragged down the sales of the L Brands group in the same store by 3%. At present, the main driving force of the group's performance comes from its body care brand Bath & Body Works, which is also an important reason why it has repeatedly been "split" and "sold".

In addition to the changing society, sexy is no longer the main goal pursued by women nowadays. The decline of Wei's business has also been questioned by the whole company culture because of the scandals at the executive level.

In February 1st this year, the New York Times quoted a number of supermodels and people familiar with the matter as saying that the founder and CEO of L Brands (Leslie Wexner) and former executive Ed Lazek (Ed Razek) had expressed indecent and humiliating comments on the supermodels repeatedly in the background of Leslie Wijksna, making the interior of the security company full of harassment and bullying.

Leslie Wijksna (left) and Ed Lazek

Some people said that he had humiliated the famous Bella Hadid at the back stage of the show, and touched other supermodels of the waist and hips. A supermodel named Andy Mus (Andi Muise) also said that after rejecting the requirements of the hidden rules proposed by her, she was dismissed from the next year's show.

In a November 2018 interview with Vogue, she said that L Brands had considered joining the big and cross gender models in the "secret show", "but no one is interested, until now." The comments caused a huge public opinion controversy.

In May 2019, Weeks Na, the boss of L Brands, was involved in the sexual assault case of her Jeffrey Brands. A female model revealed that Epstein had been involved in the selection process of the model, and had conducted sexual harassment on many female models on the grounds of interview, and Weeks Na knew about it.

In short, after entering the 2019, the dilemma faced by the company was transformed from a commercial operation problem to a larger, more difficult public crisis. When the T platform full of beauty and sex has become a "hell" full of sexual harassment, who will pay for this brand?

　　 Who is going to take the deal?

At present, the object of a deal with L Brands is Sycamore Partners, a very mysterious PE company in the United States.

There is not much media coverage about the private equity firm. According to the official website of Sycamore Partners, the company is headquartered in New York, focusing on investment in the consumer and retail sectors. Prior to that, it bought a global office supplies retailer (Staples) in 2017 with a price of $6 billion 900 million. According to CNBC reports, after the completion of the acquisition, Sycamore Partners appropriately reduced the retail business of stanper and retained its strong "B to B" business.

In addition, Sycamore Partners also has the origin of Limited Brands, the predecessor of L Brands. In 2011, Sycamore acquired the Mast Globla Fashions, the MGF company, which is responsible for purchasing business. Now MGF has helped Sycamore integration establish a clothing retail Empire, which includes Talbots, Torrid and other clothing brands acquired by Sycamore.

In 2018, Sycamore completed its third fund raising, which amounted to US $4 billion 750 million. This is also the largest fund to date and will focus on investment in the retail sector.

According to the Wall Street journal's report at the end of January, a person familiar with the matter said that the acquisition terms of Sycamore Partners might involve Genrisley Wijksna's resignation, and two executives said that L Brands would be laid off and the number of layoffs was unclear.

On the whole, it is a target for the retail and garment industries. Judging from the existing information, the management scandals and corporate culture problems that have caused a blow to the prestige brand image are expected to be dealt with after the sale.

As for the sexy underwear and wonderful show of the past, whether the new strong impact on people's eyeballs depends on how the new owners will make bold decisions on "Wei Ming".