Tom Hicks' last deal before stepping down from Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, the acquisition of UK footwear company Jimmy Choo, was a testament, in part, to the power of the popular HBO series “Sex and the City”.
The series follows the romantic adventures of four single women in New York. It also portrayed in explicit detail the craven lust that Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha (left to right) hold for shoes, chief among them footwear made by Jimmy Choo. Aside from the onscreen plugs, the HBO web site provides an episode-by-episode “fashion credits” guide that lets viewers know what was worn in each scene. Choo shoes figure prominently. Happily for the footwear company's previous owner, London private equity firm Phoenix Equity Partners, the publicity helped kick the firm's investment up to a 3.8 times return on equity when Hicks Muse bought the company in November for $187 million. Whether Hicks Muse, with an office in London, can get the same rise out of Jimmy Choo remains to be seen.
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