£62m deal for Faith shoes

CHRISTMAS has come early for Jonathan Faith, who is poised for a £62m sale of the High Street women's shoe shop chain founded by his father.

Faith, the majority shareholder, could sign over the business to private equity group Bridgepoint Capital as early as this week.

The sale will mark the end of a process that began almost a year ago when Faith appointed Waterford Corporate Finance to sell the retail business.

Founded by Samuel Faith in 1964, the business has grown considerably since Jonathan joined 20 years ago. It now has 68 stand-alone stores and about 120 concessions, mainly in branches of Debenhams.

Jonathan, 50 this month, now plans to develop a stockmonitoring software system that he introduced to Faith. The software will become the focus of a new, independent company.

Bridgepoint fought off a number of rival private equity bidders, believed to have included Phoenix Equity Partners. It has just sold designer shoes business Jimmy Choo in a £101m deal to American fund Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst.

Though Faith and Bridgepoint signed an exclusivity agreement in April, the deal collapsed when trading conditions appeared to weaken and a lower offer price was rejected.

However, Bridgepoint was impressed with the management team, led by assistant managing director Jacqueline O'Neill, and resumed talks in the summer.

The sale of Faith comes at a time of change in the footwear retail market.

LK Bennett, the upmarket women's shoe chain, has appointed BDO Stoy Hayward to find buyers as founder Linda Bennett has decided to cash out of the business.