St Tropez up for sale
St Tropez, the Nottingham fake tanning specialist, is being put up for sale by its private equity owners, according to a report. Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) - part of part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group - is said to have hired advisers to tout St Tropez for sale four years after snapping it up for around £70m, in a deal which took Insider’s Deal of the Year award. St Tropez’s profits have leapt to £4.7m in 2009 from £2.6m in 2007 under the guidance of chief executive Michelle Feeney. The Sunday Times reported that LDC has taken on board investment bank Rothschild to oversee a potential sale as it looks to realise its investment. Its takeover of St Tropez in March 2006 netted UK founder Judy Naake a multi-million pound windfall. St Tropez first started in California, but Ms Naake set up the UK business in 1997 with a £12,000 unsecured loan, selling the self-tan creams from the back of her car.
