Waverly to be sold
NexCen offers $36.8M, warrants
By Carole Soan -- Furniture Today, March 18, 2007
New York — NexCen Brands has agreed to acquire the Waverly brand of decorative fabrics and other home furnishings products from F. Schumacher & Co., the companies said last week.
Publicly held NexCen said it will pay $36.8 million in cash and issue 50,000 stock warrants to acquire the Waverly brand. NexCen said it will hire design, marketing and licensing personnel to continue the Waverly business.
The company said it estimates the Waverly brand will generate about $9 million of royalty revenue and about an incremental 7 cents of earnings per share in the first 12 months after the acquisition. Assuming it completes the deal by the end of April, NexCen expects the brand will add about 4 cents per share to its fiscal 2007 EPS.
"Waverly provides us with a leading presence in the home design sector," said Robert W. D'Loren, NexCen president and CEO. "Waverly has an outstanding team of home products designers and licensing professionals that can excel in our operating structure by supporting and growing the Waverly brand. NexCen can build upon their expertise and the current Waverly licensee base to more fully develop our Bill Blass home business and future brands that we intend to acquire."
Gerald W. Puschel, CEO of F. Schumacher & Co., said, "NexCen deeply respects the brand and its storied history and is committed to safeguarding and managing the brand into the future as we approach Waverly's 85th year. We are proud that Waverly will continue its trajectory with a company so befitting the brand."
Among the Waverly licensees is P/Kaufmann, which acquired the Waverly decorative fabric license in October. P/Kaufmann has hired some of the Waverly sales, marketing and design staff, said Ron Kaufmann, CEO of P/Kaufmann.
"We are pleased that NexCen is fully committed to furthering the value of this brand," Kaufmann said.
