Francois-Henri Pinault’s rocky affair with plus-size fashion is finally over.
The French luxury tycoon — whose wife is Selma Hayek and whose PPR conglomerate owns Gucci — yesterday watched as the New Jersey-based plus-size Avenue clothing chain filed for bankruptcy, four years after he bought it for $200 million in an strategic move that baffled many insiders.
Confirming an exclusive Jan. 24 report in The Post, Avenue said it has received an offer to be acquired out of Chapter 11 by Versa Capital, a Philadelphia-based private-equity firm whose other investments include Bob’s Stores and Angus Steak House.
Versa, which will be the “stalking-horse” bidder in a bankruptcy auction, has offered $35 million for Avenue, whose parent, United Retail Group, is a unit of PPR’s Redcat USA catalog division.
Avenue plans to pare the chain to about 300 stores from 433, court papers show.
Avenue’s sales fell 4 percent last year to $300.6 million as the red ink, before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, quadrupled to $28.4 million.
The struggling chain’s bankruptcy filing blamed its woes, in part, on an “everyday low pricing” strategy that wasn’t marketed well. In 2010, Avenue hired Dawn Robertson, formerly president of Old Navy, as its CEO.