LONDON: NRI entrepreneur Tom Singh, founder of fashion retailer New Look which is in the process of being sold by its private equity owners, could pocket 200 million pounds from the company's imminent sale.
Fifty-six-year-old Tom Singh founded the New Look fashion house in 1969 in Taunton, Somerset. It is the third-largest women's wear retailer in the UK after Marks and Spencer and Next, the second biggest women's footwear retailer.
From humble beginnings - with his wife Kuljit, Singh had borrowed 5,000 pounds from his parents to open his first store - is now a high street giant specialising in women's wear retail.
Singh, who holds a 22 per cent stake in the chain, is in the process of deciding whether to sell some or all of his stake in New Look, which has an estimated price tag of 2 billion pounds.
However, friends believe that Singh might be tempted to cash out from the deal and pursue other ventures.
New Look has around 1.1 billion pounds of debt, meaning that the group's 900 million pounds of equity will be split between Singh, New Look's management, Apax and Permira, the company's private equity majority owners, and Landmark, the Dubai-based retailer that has a three per cent stake.
It will be the fourth fortune that Singh, who stepped back from executive duties last summer, would make from the company.
In 1996, Singh's family earned 170 million pounds by selling 75 per cent stake in the retailer to PPM, the venture capital company.
In 2002, the family further reduced its remaining stake and made 31 million pounds, while in 2004 it received 74 million pounds when the company became private.
First round bids for New Look are due at the end of this month.
It emerged last week that Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus, two of the world's biggest buyout groups, have joined forces to bid and have appointed Morgan Stanley and Citigroup as advisers.
Other interested parties are understood to include CVC Partners and Blackstone, the private equity firms.
According to the 2007 Rich List published by the Eastern Eye, Tom Singh's pocket is worth 350 million pounds.
