Brookstone, Inc. (Merrimack, N.H.) has signed a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by an international consortium.
The buyers of the 300-store specialty products retailer include OSIM International, a Singapore-listed healthy lifestyle products company that operates over 700 stores; JW Childs Associates L.P., a Boston-based private equity firm; and Temasek Holdings Ltd., a Singapore-based investment company.
“This transaction offers great value to our stockholders and tremendous opportunity for our company going forward,” said Brookstone chairman, president and ceo Michael Anthony. “OSIM will be a strategic partner with product development capabilities extremely complementary to those of Brookstone’s, in addition to an international store infrastructure, primarily in Asia, that will help expand the Brookstone brand globally. JW Childs and Temasek are leading investment firms that have a long-term view towards growing the businesses in which they invest and have an excellent track record of working in partnership with management to build great companies.”
Members of Brookstone’s senior management team are expected to remain in place and invest in the company. Anthony will be on the board of the new company.
The transaction is expected to be completed in Brookstone’s second or third fiscal quarter of 2005.