BOOHOO GROUP PLC

Debenhams Group has sold the Nasty Gal brand, including its global intellectual property rights, to White Space Group New York for $16 million in cash. The British retailer, formerly known as Boohoo Group, bought Nasty Gal out of bankruptcy in 2017 for around $20 million in cash and helped the American fast-fashion label, which began as an eBay vintage clothing boutique, reach profitability. Debenhams said Nasty Gal generated gross merchandise volume of 12 million pounds and adjusted EBITDA of 400,000 pounds in 2026, describing the brand as noncore and not material to the group. The disposal follows the 90-million-pounds sale of automation at the group's Sheffield, England, distribution center, with the lease reassigned to Primark, and Debenhams said it aligns with its transition to a marketplace-led model that is capital-light, stock-light, cost-light and cash generative, targeting a marketplace representing well over 50 percent of gross merchandise value. Group chief executive Dan Finley said the turnaround continues at pace, and the company added that it returned to GMV growth in the first quarter, with growth accelerating in the second quarter ahead of a first-half trading statement later this week. WSG, a brand management firm, owns Von Dutch and the women's fashion brands Vintage Havana and Surf Gypsy, and co-owns the Allbirds intellectual property with American Exchange Group.

Debenhams Group has agreed to sell the automation assets at its Sheffield distribution center and reassign the associated lease to Primark Stores for £90 million in cash, a deal that should leave the company with negligible net debt by February 2027. Shares in Debenhams Group, formerly known as Boohoo Group, jumped around 8% on the news. The company received £76.5 million when the transaction completed, with the remaining £13.5 million due once it provides vacant possession early next year, all of which will strengthen a balance sheet that still carried £93.2 million of net debt at the end of February. Management now expects net debt to be negligible by the end of the current financial year in February 2027, an improvement from its previous target of getting leverage below one times adjusted EBITDA, and it expects annual depreciation to fall by around £12 million, interest expense to decline by at least £10 million and cash lease costs to drop by roughly £4 million. The group is simultaneously shifting fulfillment of the stocked goods it still carries to a global third-party logistics provider as part of a broader strategy to become a capital-light, stock-light and cost-light marketplace business, with marketplace activity eventually targeted to account for well over half of gross merchandise value. Group GMV returned to growth in the first quarter, rising 0.5%, before accelerating in the second quarter, while May alone delivered growth of roughly 8%.