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Posts Tagged ‘bain capital’

Gymboree: Bain’s baby bet

October 14th, 2010 | No Comments

A baby bust may be the best time to buy firms that sell kids’ stuff

PRIVATE-EQUITY barons don’t usually go shopping for baby blankets and bibs. But on October 11th Bain Capital, a buy-out firm, announced that it would purchase the Gymboree Corporation for $1.8 billion. The deal is the largest buy-out so far this year in the beleaguered retail industry, according to Dealogic, a research firm. Why the interest?

Gymboree sells children’s clothes and operates centres where children can play noisy games on brightly coloured soft mats. It has performed reasonably well despite the recession: annual sales have stayed flat for the past two years, at around $1 billion. Children’s clothes are recession-resistant. Parents hate to see kids do without. Also, rugrats grow annoyingly fast, and often need new shoes. …

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Gome and Huang Guangyu: Power cut

February 18th, 2010 | No Comments

China’s biggest electronics retailer, like its founder, is in trouble

NO ONE epitomises China’s boisterous embrace of modern consumerism better than Huang Guangyu, who transformed a tiny street stall in Beijing into a sprawling network of 1,350 stores. In the process, he became the country’s richest man, worth more than $6.3 billion. His spectacular rise ended abruptly with his arrest in 2008. The authorities belatedly announced the charges against him, of insider trading and bribery, on February 12th.

Gome, the electronic-goods chain that Mr Huang founded, has also had a difficult time of late. Since Mr Huang’s arrest hundreds of its stores have been closed and Bain Capital, an American private-equity firm, has been brought in to shore up its capital. …

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