Ted Baker selects potential buyer, Sycamore steps down

Ted Baker has announced in an update of its ongoing formal sales process that its board has selected a potential buyer.

While the process may take several weeks and the retailer reinforced that an offer may not be made, it did say it would be going into a process of confirmatory due diligence with the unnamed firm.

The selection comes over a month after the company announced it had received a flurry of interest in a sale after it rejected an unsolicited 250 million pound takeover bid from Sycamore Partners Management, a New York-based private equity firm.

Following the launch of its formal sale process, the retailer announced it had received a number of non-binding proposals from interested parties.

Ted Baker did confirm that Sycamore has now stepped down from the sales process, however it did not name the bidder it will be going into the next phase of the process with.

In a report by Sky News in April, one of the several potential suitors was said to have been Authentic Brands Group, though it was not clear whether the Reebok-owners had made an actual offer.

The retailer is currently going through a brand transformation which has seen it launch a new website and implement a brand repositioning strategy.