David’s Bridal is finally tying the knot.
The 300-store wedding-dress retailer has agreed to be acquired by private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice for a price around $900 million, The Post has learned.
That’s short of the $1 billion-plus windfall initially sought by owners TPG and Leonard Green & Partners, a pair of buyout firms that acquired the chain for $750 million in 2007 from the May department-store conglomerate, sources said.
“There is nothing to comment on at this time,” David’s Bridal CEO Bob Huth said yesterday in response to a query from The Post.
Nevertheless, insiders said the deal is likely to be announced in the coming weeks. Representatives of CD&R didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The price of the acquisition was healthy and large enough to signal lingering optimism among PE players about the outlook for consumer spending, which has been hammered by unemployment and a tanked housing market.
“The main thing is that they weren’t left waiting at the altar,” according to one banking source. “It was a good, if not great outcome.”
Indeed, sources said the auction supervised by Bank of America appeared it might fail as recently as last month, as big players including TPG — which had considered consolidating its ownership in the chain — lost their nerve.
In recent years, David’s Bridal has chased more upscale brides. In 2010, the retailer cut an exclusive deal with designer Vera Wang for dresses priced up to $1,500.
But industry watchers have raised concerns that the wedding-dress business has grown increasingly competitive as more retailers ventured into the niche. Among them: J. Crew, which TPG and Leonard Green took private last year for $3 billion.