IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR!
Boohoo buys fashion label from founder’s playboy son
THE playboy son of Boohoo’s chairman is in line for a £300m windfall after the online retail group revealed plans to take full control of his trendy fashion business.
Umar Kamani founded Pretty Little Things in 2012 and it has rapidly grown since then to boast annual sales of more than £500m.
And the 32-year-old tycoon is now in line for a lucrative pay day after Boohoo – the fashion giant founded by his father Mahmud and business partner Carol Kane – said it is buying out his stake in the outfit.
The move comes just days after a short seller known as the ‘Dark Destroyer’ claimed that Pretty Little Things’ profits had been overstated.
But Boohoo yesterday insisted the fast-growing brand aimed at women aged 14 to 24 had gone from ‘strength to strength’ and was well worth the sum being paid.
The Manchester-based company first acquired 66pc of Pretty Little Things for £3.7m in 2016 and had retained the rights to acquire the rest later on.
Its full takeover is a major coup for Umar Kamani, with the remaining part of his business now selling for at least £269.8m. The figure could jump by a further £54m if Boohoo shares hit 491p per share for a six-month period at some point in the next four years.
It is understood that Kamani’s shares could entitle him to about £300m of the total. Boohoo’s offer was backed by an independent panel of directors that did not include 55-year-old Mahmud Kamani, the company said.
Umar Kamani, who will keep the post of chief executive at his firm, said: ‘This deal represents another milestone in our journey. The team and myself have big ambitions for the brand, and I’m incredibly excited about what the future holds for Pretty Little Things as it embarks on the next stage of its global journey as a fully-owned part of the Boohoo group.’
Originally started by Umar and his brothers, Pretty Little Things has no High Street stores and instead advertises mainly on social media. Its fashion range is aimed at style-conscious young women on a budget, with dresses ranging from £6 for a basic T-shirt style, to £100 for diamante-mesh outfits. Umar Kamani, whose father founded Boohoo in 2006 with Kane, has made a fortune from the brand and his personal wealth has been estimated at £1bn.
That has allowed him to enjoy a playboy lifestyle, jetting across the globe to party with celebrities including Little Mix (pictured
top), P Diddy, Jennifer Lopez and Denzel Washington.
Kamani is also a prolific user of social network Instagram, regularly sharing snaps of his luxurious lifestyle.
His wealth has also allowed him to buy a fleet of swish cars, including two Rolls-Royce Phantoms, a £300,000 Lamborghini Aventador, a £92,000 customised G-Class Mercedes and a high-end Range Rover. But he told the Mail on
Sunday last year that sharing his exploits online was a ploy ‘to make my rivals think I’m not a shrewd businessman’.
‘If they think I jet around the world, drinking champagne and hanging out with beautiful women – and nothing else – they underestimate me,’ he said.
But Pretty Little Things was thrust under the microscope earlier this week when Matthew Earl, the boss of hedge fund Shadowfall, alleged that Boohoo had misled investors over the true state of its finances.
Earl called the deal with Boohoo ‘scandalous’. He told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The insiders have yet again cashed out from this business. They are selling a business for half [of what] the market is valuing it at.’
Pretty Little Things had reported annual revenues of £516m and made profits of £45.2m last year.