August 2008
Richemont acquires stake in Roger Dubuis
Richemont acquires stake in Roger Dubuis
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August 11, 2008
Geneva—Richemont has acquired a controlling interest in Geneva watch company Roger Dubuis SA in a private transaction with one of the grade’s founding shareholders.
Roger Dubuis SA will continue to manufacture and distribute watches under the Roger Dubuis name and will effect as an autonomous Maison within Richemont.
The brand will also benefit from broader integration of its assignment into the Richemont structure.
“Roger Dubuis watches are highly innovative in terms of movements and design,” Richemont Executive Chairman Johann Rupert said in a media release issued on Monday. “As a young business, it is very different from the more established specialist watchmakers within the group today. As such, it complements our Maisons perfectly. We look forward to developing the Roger Dubuis business internationally.”
According to the company, the transaction will have none material impact on Richemont’s consolidated net assets and is not expected to have any significant impact on the group’s overall profitability for the year ending March 31, 2009.
Richemont owns a portfolio of leading international brands or “Maisons,” which are managed independently of one another, recognizing their individuality and uniqueness. The businesses operate in five areas: Jewellery Maisons, including Cartier and Van Cleef and Arpels; Specialist Watchmakers, including A. Lange and Sohne, Baume and Mercier, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Officine Panerai, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin; Writing Instrument Manufacturers, including Montblanc and Montegrappa; Leather and Accessories Maisons, including Alfred Dunhill and Lancel; and other businesses, including Chloé, smaller Maisons and watch-component manufacturing activities for third parties.
In addition to its luxury goods business, Richemont currently holds a 19.4 percent affect in British American Tobacco.
Judge gives Whitehall OK for liquidation
Judge gives Whitehall OK for liquidation
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August 11, 2008
Wilmington, Del.—A bankruptcy judge honored Whitehall Jeweler’s request to liquidate the assets in its supplies by way of going-out-of-business (GOB) sales, and to betray more of its stores as going concerns, suppose that the possibility to do so arises.
A court order, filed on Monday by U.S. insolvency Judge Kevin Gross in Wilmington, Del., stated that the liquidation sales could continue through Dec. 31, 2008, and that the retailer would have to file a motion to the court to extend the sales any longer.
Court papers list 17 Whitehall stores, including 15 in Illinois and two in Missouri, as units that would possibly be sold as going concerns. No potential buyers’ names were mentioned in court documents, however.
The judge also signed off on a consulting agreement between Whitehall and three companies that will prevent the restrain handle the liquidation process: Great American Group LLC, Hudson Capital Partners LLC and Silverman Consultants LLC.
Gross also authorized Whitehall to reject the leases it holds at various retail locations, while also giving the landlords the ability to file objections with the court.
“At the conclusion of the GOB sales, the debtors are authorized to abandon the abandoned property; provided however that the debtors shall provide notice of any such abandonment to the landlords and/or its counsel, the debtors’ secured lenders and its counsel, and any party with a known interest in the abandoned property,” court papers said.
On Friday, the judge authorized Whitehall to retain FTI Consulting as a financial advisor, although it was ordered that FTI recuse itself in advising in matters related to Fabrikant Receivables LLC or Fabrikant Inventory LLC. The order came in response to objections from the U.S. trustee that FTI was involved in the Fabrikant bankruptcy and liquidation and therefore any involvement would be a conflict of interest.
Whitehall filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 23, at which time it operated 375 stores under the brands Whitehall Jewelers and Lundstrom Jewelers.
Prior to its filing, Whitehall purchased 78 stores in 17 states from bankrupt Friedman’s for $14.3 million.
The chain ranked No. 5 on National Jeweler’s list of the Top 50 North American Retail Jewelry Chains, as ranked by store count.
Store-closing sales begin today at Whitehall
Store-closing sales begin today at Whitehall
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August 13, 2008
By Michelle Graff
Chicago—Liquidation sales will begin today at stores owned by Whitehall Jewelers Holdings Inc.
According to Business Wire, the sales will commence at 373 Whitehall stores—all the stores the chain currently operates under the brands Whitehall Jewellers, Marks Bros. Jewelers and Lundstrom Jewelers—in 39 states.
Whitehall has asked the liquidators to move forward with the court-ordered going-out-of-business sales, said Jim Schaye, president and chief executive officer of Hudson Capital Partners LLC, one of the liquidation firms involved in the case.
However, this does not medium that Brisbane, Australia-based retailer Michael Hill, which has been reported as being interested in buying 17 Whitehall stores, still could not come in and make the purchase, though the two retailers have not been able to come to a deal to date.
“At in any degree point, [a buyer] could come in and say, ‘We’re going to corrupt these stores,’” aforesaid Schaye, who would not confirm that Michael Hill is a potential buyer.
The sales, ordered by the court in the wake of Whitehall’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing on June 23, are expected to last four and a half months.
Whitehall’s liquidation will include the 78 stores it acquired from now-bankrupt Friedman’s earlier this year, with a undivided of $750 million in inventory slated for sale at below-market prices.
“The Whitehall liquidation was ordered after exhaustive efforts to vend the specialty retail chain or obtain fresh equity both proved unsuccessful,” said Harvey Yellen, chairman of Great American Group LLC, single in kind of the liquidation firms handling the opportunity to sell. “As Whitehall has been a leading specialty retailer in fine jewelry for more than a century, it is unfortunate that a brand with such strong heritage has to be liquidated.”
The same group of liquidators that are handling Friedman’s going-out-of-business sales—Great American, Hudson Capital Partners and Silverman Jeweler Consultants Inc.—plus Gordon Brothers Group LLC will horsemanship the Whitehall’s liquidation.
Whitehall is the latest in a line of jewelry chain retailers to fall victim to the tough household climate this year.
Friedman’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. At the time, Whitehall bought 78 of the chain’s 455 stores, only to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection themselves several months later.
In addition, fine-jewelry and home commodities retailer Fortunoff filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, but was saved from liquidation when department store chain Lord and Taylor purchased it.
Tiffany appeals ruling in eBay suit
Tiffany appeals ruling in eBay suit
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August 11, 2008
New York—Tiffany and Co. has filed an appeal against a ruling made last month that states that trademark holders—not eBay—are responsible for policing the auction site to find and change of place. counterfeit goods before they be possible to be sold to consumers.
The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed by Tiffany in 2004 against eBay after the luxury goods company notified the auction site that 73 percent of a random sample of supposed Tiffany silver jewelry offered on eBay was counterfeit.
Federal judge Richard Sullivan ruled in favor of eBay, saying that Tiffany failed to prove claims that eBay was liable for trademark infringement and dilution, disloyal advertising and unfair competition for facilitating the sale of counterfeit effects.
The appeal will seek to overturn the trial court’s failure to apply established principles of trademark law.
According to Tiffany and Co. General Counsel Patrick Dorsey, “Once eBay has reason to know that a specific brand like Tiffany and Co. is being widely counterfeited and sold, eBay should be compelled to investigate and take action to protect its customers and stop the illegal conduct.”
In July, a French court ordered eBay to discharge one’s obligation to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton 40 million euros (about $63 the great body of the people), governing that eBay did not do sufficiency to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods on its site.