Sycamore Partners, the company posed to buy a majority share of Victoria’s Secret from L Brands Inc, announced that it would no longer go through with the $525 million deal announced in February. The company said in a court filing that L Brands had violated the agreement by closing nearly all of its North American stores in response to the COVID-19 outbreak without Sycamore’s permission.
L Brands also furloughed most of its Victoria’s Secret employees and reduced compensation for senior staff. Sycamore said that these actions, along with not paying rent or taking receipt of new merchandise, were potentially damaging to the lingerie chain.
“That these actions were taken as a result of or in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is no defense to L Brands’ clear breaches of the transaction agreement,” Sycamore said in its complaint.
L Brands said that it would challenge Sycamore’s decision.
