Just weeks after M and M Direct announced it planned to float on the stockmarket, the company has said it will be bought instead by Danish fashion etailer Bestseller for up to £140m.
The deal looks set to take M and M Direct to a still wider geographical market than it already sells in.
The Leominster-based pureplay, which sells branded clothing and footwear at a discount to more than 1.3m active customers, already sells internationally. Dedicated local market websites cover the UK, Germany, France, Austria, Holland and Poland, while it delivers to more than 20 countries worldwide. It turned over £118.9m in the year to February 2014.
Meanwhile, Bestseller sells affordable fashion in markets including Europe, the Middle East, Canada, India and has more than 3,000 chain stores in 38 markets around the world.
The acquisition, agreed by M and M’s parent company private equity firm TA Associates, is expected to close within eight weeks.
