The Magasin du Nord blueprint

Debenhams acquired Magasin du Nord, Denmark’s leading department store chain, in November 2009. Since then the business has grown strongly. In 2011, Magasin delivered £246.7 million of sales, with like-for-like sales increasing by 6.3% on a local currency basis in 2011. EBITDA of £13.5 million means that Magasin was acquired on an EV/EBITDA ratio of less than one times. There are further opportunities for growth at Magasin, both in terms of sales and margins as it benefits from leveraging Debenhams’ supply chain scale and knowledge. Growth will also come from the launch of an online offer in Denmark during 2012.

Magasin du Nord is also a blueprint for other potential acquisitions. It has demonstrated that our model of servicing owned international assets from the UK works. We will continue to assess acquisition opportunities as they become available.