Brookstone Inc. signed an agreement to be acquired by a group of investors, including two Singapore-based companies, the Merrimack, NH, firm said last week.
Brookstone is a multichannel marketer of specialty consumer products that operates three catalog titles: Brookstone, Hard-to-Find Tools and Gardeners Eden. For the fiscal year ended Jan. 29, the company’s sales totaled $499 million, a 14.9 percent gain over the previous year.
The group buying Brookstone is led by OSIM International, a Singapore-based lifestyle products company that operates 700 stores, Boston-based private equity firm JW Childs Associates and Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings Ltd.
Each outstanding share of Brookstone’s common stock will be converted into the right to receive $20.50 in cash. Media reports pegged the purchase price at $417 million to $445 million.
“OSIM will be a strategic partner with product development capabilities extremely complementary to those of Brookstone’s, in addition to an international store infrastructure, primarily in Asia, that will help expand the Brookstone brand globally,” Brookstone chairman/president/CEO Michael Anthony said in a statement.
Current senior management will continue to lead the company. The corporate headquarters will stay in Merrimack once the deal is completed.
Chantal Todé covers catalog and retail news and BTB marketing for DM News and DM News.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
