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NEW YORK - The future of Nine West is in question.
After parent company Jones Apparel Group said it was seeking a buyer for the entire $5 billion company last week, several key financial bidders - including Texas Pacific Group and Cerberus Capital Management - were said to be seriously eyeing the firm.
Even as Jones Apparel was adamant that it would not sell any of its divisions, including Nine West, the most likely scenario is that any buyer would break up the firm, which also owns Barneys New York and a number of moderate apparel labels.
Nine West could fetch between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, according to analysts. Interested parties are said to include Brown Shoe, as well as two former players in the company, Marc Fisher, owner of Marc Fisher Footwear, and Vince Camuto, CEO of Camuto Group. (Fisher is the son of Nine West co-founder Jack Fisher and Camuto is a Nine West co-founder.)
Wayne Weaver, a former owner of Nine West and current owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and chairman of Shoe Carnival, told Footwear News he is not interested in the business.
Analysts believe that Brown Shoe is the least likely candidate, with only $34.3 million in cash on its balance sheet. The company is also already heavily leveraged, having acquired Bennett Footwear for $205 million in cash last year.
"I seriously doubt that Brown would be a buyer for the Nine West Group, because [Nine West] is not performing very...