Firms create consortium to bid for well-heeled retailer New Look

BIDS for fashion retailer New Look, which employs about 300 people in Ireland, have reportedly been received from two of the world’s largest buy-out groups.

American private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus are believed to have formed a consortium to bid for the fashion retailer, which has 40 stores in the Republic and Northern Ireland.

Sales at New Look are understood to have reached more than £1 billion (€1.46bn) in the year to March 2007, showing an 18% increase.