Business

Claire’s hopes Katy Perry can boost business

Billionaire Leon Black’s widely anticipated bid to take Claire’s Stores public may be ’tween a rock and hard place.

The mall-based teenager-friendly costume-jewelry chain, owned by Black’s private-equity firm Apollo Management, in February hooked up with pop star Katy Perry to push a new, exclusive line of trinkets as it looks to goose business.

Perry’s collection of jewelry and fashion accessories, which are inspired by her 2013 album, PRISM, will debut next month, with the start of her world tour, according to a statement on her website.

The pop singer’s first concert is scheduled in Belfast on May 7.

But this week, the company ousted its CEO as it reported surprisingly weak fourth-quarter sales, disclosing they tumbled 12 percent to $436 million in a lackluster holiday season in the US and Europe.

The news sent bond yields soaring on the $2.4 billion debt load that Claire’s got saddled with when Apollo took it private for $3.1 billion in 2007.

Indeed, Claire’s ability to service that debt now looks shakier, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, falling 28 percent in the most recent quarter to just $93 million.