B. Riley increases holding of womenswear label Bebe

Financial services platform B. Riley Financial has snapped up 3.7 million shares of common stock of Bebe Stores, a womenswear label founded by Manny Mashouf.

The firm forked out five dollars per share for a total purchase price of 18.5 million dollars from Mashouf himself, bringing its total ownership of the brand to 76 percent.

It comes as Mashouf sets about plans to step down from his roles at Bebe in the near future, now lowering his entire holding in the company to 4 percent.

B. Riley first established a relationship with Bebe in 2018, when the brand became the first licensing investment that set its brand portfolio in motion, with the firm now holding equity interests in the likes of Hurley, Justice and Scotch & Soda.

It initially stepped in to support Bebe in its strategic shift away from brick-and-mortar retail to focus on e-commerce and brand licensing.

Speaking in a release, Bryant Riley, chairman and co-CEO of B. Riley, said: "This is an opportune time to increase our investment in bebe, and we expect that our expanded involvement in Bebe's operations will add value based on our extensive experience in brand licensing and deep understanding of the rent-to-own industry. We expect this transaction to be accretive to B. Riley's EBITDA."

Riley further noted that Bebe’s licensing investments have generated around 11 million dollars a year over three years in cash flow, adding that the model is “historically stable”.