Sky News has learnt that Steve Madden, which bought Kurt Geiger in a £289m deal last year, is working with bankers to offload the operation for an unspecified sum.
Industry sources said the process, being run by US-based investment bank Solomon Partners, was at an early stage.
Kurt Geiger’s management of the footwear departments in some of London‘s most prestigious luxury stores partly dates back to the early 2000s, when the brand was owned by Harrods.
Mohamed Al Fayed, the-then Harrods owner and sexual predator whose abuse of hundreds of women is now the subject of several investigations and a sprawling victims’ compensation scheme, authorised the sale of Kurt Geiger in 2005 for £46m.
The business was bought by its management team, backed by private equity funding from Barclays.
It was later owned by the buyout firms Sycamore Partners and, subsequently, Cinven.
Since its acquisition by US-based Steve Madden, Kurt Geiger’s performance has further improved, bolstering its parent company’s earnings, according to figures released in May.
The identity of prospective buyers for the department store operation was unclear on Friday.
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Kurt Geiger declined to comment.
