Revolution Beauty had another twist to add to its long saga of business ups and downs on Wednesday, announcing that it has received a possible takeover offer, that it’s making a big board change and that it’s kicking off a formal sale process.
So where do we start? Perhaps the possible offer is the best place.
It said it can “confirm that it has received a preliminary approach regarding a possible offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the company”. That came after its 13 May announcement that it was “reviewing its funding structure and in light of this [was] exploring discussions in respect of support for an equity raise from its key shareholders”.
Against this background and to “widen its strategic options, the board has now unanimously concluded that it would also be appropriate to investigate the sale of the company and therefore has decided to commence a formal sale process”.
The unnamed party that made the approach has agreed to participate in that, although there’s no guarantee it will result in a sale.
But in order to support that process, it announced that Iain McDonald will be appointed as non-executive chair and that current chair Alistair McGeorge is standing down from the board.
McDonald “has significant PLC experience as a non-executive director, including in takeover situations, and is considered by the board to have the right skills to oversee the immediate strategic steps of the company”. He’s currently a non-executive director of Debenhams Group.
As for the sale process, the board is inviting “expressions of interest from parties regarding a potential offer” before 11 June.
Of course, the announcement raises as many questions as it answers. Why has McGeorge — a Debenhams Group (formerly Boohoo Group) appointee — stepped down? Where does Debenhams Group stand as it holds a more-than-27% stake in the firm? And is the appointment on a non-exec chair who’s also a non-exec at Debenhams significant?
It’s intriguing that McDonald is also executive chairman of Selkirk and was previously a non-executive director of e-tail giant THG. Last month THG rejected a takeover approach by Selkirk for its MyProtein business, saying it was “wholly unsolicited, largely unfunded, highly conditional and non-binding”.
We’re not likely to get answers to those question for a while with Revolution simply saying on Wednesday that “further announcements will be made as appropriate”.
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