UK "New Look" leading fashion chain of stores's founder NRI may pocket £200 million

London, May 16, 2007
Lakhbir Singh

NRI Tom Singh, 56, founder of leading fashion chain of stores- "New Look" could pocket £200 million from the company's sale.

"New Look" was established by Tom Singh in 1969 and has grown organically in the UK to become the UK’s third largest single fascia retailer of womenswear and have 543 stores in UK and Ireland; and 215 stores in France. It has also developed a substantial footwear offer, which has captured over 3.5% of the UK market share. New Look’s head office is in Weymouth and it has over 13,500 employees working in the UK and France. He with his wife Kuljit, borrowed £5,000 from his parents to open his first store

Trinitybrook plc, a company backed by funds advised by Permira and Apax made an offer to take New Look private in a €1.2 billion transaction in April 2004. He holds a 22% stake in the chain, is in the process of deciding whether to sell of his stake in New Look, which has an estimated price tag of £2 billion.

New Look chain of stores, which floated on the London Stock Exchange in June 1998. He later participated in a $1B transaction to take the company private again in association with Apax Partners and Permira Advisers.

Tom Singh said, “I have substantially increased my business activities in the cleantech space with family interests in renewable energy projects and technologies growing substantially. I have known zouk’s management since 1999 and am looking forward to being part of the team building one of the largest cleantech investment platforms in Europe.”

In September 2005, New Look acquired 34 Littlewoods stores from ABF, which will be opened during 2006. He is estimated to be worth in the region of over half a billion pounds. He is also the eldest brother of author and broadcaster Dr Simon Singh. He is one of Britain's wealthiest people.

He is a graduate of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth where he studied international politcs and geography.

New Look has around £1.1 billion of debt, meaning that the group's £900 million of equity will be split between Singh, New Look's management, Apax and Permira, company's private equity majority owners, and Landmark, Dubai-based retailer.

In 1996, Singh's family earned $170 million by selling 75% stake in the retailer to PPM, the venture capital company.