"Wei" Agreed To Cancel The Acquisition Deal With Private Equity Fund Sycamore.

On May 4th (Monday), L Brands Inc. of the US fashion group announced its agreement to cancel the sale of its most famous underwear brand Victoria 's Secret (Vitoria secret, hereinafter referred to as "Wei Wei") to the US private equity fund Sycamore Partners.

L Brands shares fell more than 15% during the extended trading session on Monday.

In February of this year, Sycamore Partners announced that it had reached an agreement with L Brands Inc. to acquire a controlling stake of "55%" in the US $525 million.

Affected by the new crown epidemic, L Brands closed its underwear brand "Wei", fashion brand Pink and bath brand Bath & Body Works in all retail stores in the United States and Canada in March 17th. In April 22nd, Sycamore Partners suddenly accused L Brands of violating the agreement and closed the store without permission, so she decided to abandon the acquisition.

At that time, L Brands called Sycamore Partners's act unlawful and planned to launch a counterattack. But now the company says its current focus is on how to deal with a challenging business environment rather than forcing cooperation into costly and distracting litigation.

At present, the two sides have agreed to settle all pending litigation and mutually exempt claims.

At the same time, L Brands also revealed its future development strategy: it will continue to work to break up its bathing brand and build it into an independent listed company; meanwhile, "Wei Wei" will operate as an independent company.

However, L Brands said that the decision to maintain the previously announced leadership changes came into force in May 14th. The specific changes include: the CEO and chairman of Leslie Wexner will resign and take the post of chief executive officer, Andrew Body, chief executive officer of Bath & Body Works, and is now the director of Sarah Nash as the chairman of the board. The honorary chairman, Andrew Meslow will also join the board of directors, and the current chief independent director Allan Tessler, director Gordon Gee and Raymond Zimmerman will be stepping down.

In addition, L Brands also announced the appointment of the group's current chief financial officer, Stuart Burgdoerfer, as the temporary CEO of "Wei" and will take effect immediately. Stuart Burgdoerfer will also report to Sarah Nash and Andrew Meslow at the same time. Stuart Burgdoerfer joined L Brands in 1998, then withdrew in 2004 and returned to the company in 2006.

On the other hand, "Wei Ming" accelerated the pace of expansion in the Chinese market. In April 20th and 23rd, it announced the appointment of famous Chinese actress Yang Mi and Dongyu Zhou as spokesperson for the Asian brand and the spokesman for the Greater China brand.

In the group earnings call conference held in May 21st, L Brands will also announce more details about the future development plan.