Lacoste to be sold after family feud




The feuding majority owners of French apparel company Lacoste SA are selling the company to Swiss investors,

the

Wall Street Journal

reported.

The family rift came to a head in September, when Sophie Lacoste Dournel was voted chairwoman of the company, “effectively ousting her father, Michel Lacoste, from the position he had held since 2005,” the

Journal

article said. “The row led Mr. Lacoste to publicly criticize his daughter, who has served on the Lacoste board for about seven years.”

On Nov. 7, Lacoste Dournel and her group of family shareholders said they would sell their 28% stake in the company to Swiss firm Groupe Maus Frères, according to the

Journal

report.

Michel Lacoste and other family shareholders agreed in October to sell their 30.3% stake in the firm to Maus, which already owned 35% of Lacoste through its licensing business. That deal gave Lacsote Dournel and her group the option of either buying out the company at the highest price offered by Maus or selling her stake under the same terms as her father’s group, the article saud.

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According to the

Journal,

Lacoste Dournel said at a news conference that finding financing to acquire the company “became very complicated … We found ourselves in a situation of personal conflict which is difficult to handle.”

The company, known for its crocodile logo, was founded in 1933 by Michel Lacoste’s grandfather, RenĂ©, a tennis player nicknamed “the Crocodile” by fans. (Source:

Wall Street Journal,

Nov. 8, 2012.)

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