Neiman Marcus is on the hunt for a buyer according to the NY Post.
The retail giant is not doing well amid low sales less than a year after the CEO went viral for saying he wanted to focus on Neiman’s wealthiest shoppers.
In an interview with Fortune (Feb), CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck noted that a tiny, 2% sliver of the company’s customer base accounts for a whopping 40% of its business.
“Many customers shop at Neiman Marcus 25 times a year and spend $27,000,” van Raemdonck said. “I see much more risk in having a one-time transaction where I don’t know if you will ever come back.”
Now according to the Post Neiman Marcus is weighing a possible deal to sell itself to archrival Saks Fifth Avenue — a once-unthinkable merger of the twin titans of US luxury retailing.
Dallas-based Neiman — which in addition to its namesake luxury chain owns Bergdorf Goodman in New York — has been casting around for a buyer for months as it grapples with a downturn in its business, sources said.
The 107-year-old retailer could sell for upward of $2 billion, insiders estimate — less than half the $5.1 billion it fetched in 2005 in the first of a series of debt-fueled buyouts that ended up crippling the company.
It is the third time in a decade that Saks has sought to acquire its smaller but formidable competitor, with the previous runs falling apart largely over the price tag, sources tell the Post.
Neiman CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck — who has been blasted for taking lavish pay packages for himself, even as he has laid off employees and slashed pensions — stands to walk away with about $40 million depending on the price Saks pays, according to a source briefed on the talks.
Neiman has tapped Lazard and JPMorgan to run the sales process while Hudson’s Bay is represented by Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.
Neiman Marcus when they find out there’s more poor people than rich people pic.twitter.com/BpmA9ikjgz
— Grizz Szn (@Reedh98) September 6, 2023
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Neiman Marcus is looking for a buyer due to poor sales, just 1 year after its CEO made a statement indicating that the company did not want poor people shopping at its stores.
The company may have to sell itself to Saks Fifth Avenue.
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Luka. Gojo. Tinkaton. Gen V. Palin.… pic.twitter.com/cpQUzGJnBe— LifeandFortune (@LifeandFortune) September 6, 2023
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Hey @neimanmarcus how you doin? Us poor folk can help you out
— Just ?? Massey (@IamLawdaMassey) September 6, 2023
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How can broke people shop there?
The last time I went to Neiman Marcus was 2019. I walked in there, looked at a Balenciaga T-Shirt & it was $600.
Ain’t no regular person wasting $600 on a T-Shirt when we can actually use it ? https://t.co/kdcZWnkcMx
— ??????♀️ (@jessmcmxci) September 6, 2023
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