Victoria’s Secret Now To Be Stand Alone Firm

L Brands today announced “a mutual agreement with Sycamore Partners to terminate their previously announced transaction,” in which Sycamore was to purchase a 55% stake in its Victoria’s Secret businesses.

Instead, L Brands said it was “taking the necessary steps to prepare the Victoria’s Secret Lingerie, Victoria’s Secret Beauty and Pink businesses (collectively, Victoria’s Secret) to operate as a separate, standalone company.”

Sycamore Partners had recently sought to exit the deal, while L Brands had sued to make it happen. Today L Brands announced the two had agreed “to settle all pending litigation and mutually release all claims.”

The L Brands’ board of directors “appointed Stuart Burgdoerfer, current CFO of L Brands, as interim CEO of Victoria’s Secret, effective immediately. Burgdoerfer will also continue to serve as CFO of L Brands. He will have a dual reporting relationship to Sarah Nash, who will become chairman of L Brands, and Andrew Meslow, CEO of Bath & Body Works, who will become CEO of L Brands and join the board.

As had been previously announced, Leslie Wexner will step down as CEO and chairman of the board of L Brands. He will remain a member of the board as chairman emeritus.

Said Nash, “Like all retailers, the company faces an extremely challenging business environment. Our board believes that it is in the best interests of the company, our stockholders and our associates to focus our efforts entirely on navigating this environment to address those challenges and positioning our brands for success rather than engaging in costly and distracting litigation to force a partnership with Sycamore. We are implementing significant cost reduction actions and performance improvements at Victoria’s Secret while continuing to drive strong growth at Bath & Body Works. We will continue to make decisions and take actions with the best interests of all our stakeholders and the future of our company in mind.” — NM