Goldman Sachs invests in German online spectacles retailer
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs' private equity arm is taking a roughly 20 percent stake in Mister Spex, Germany's leading online spectacles retailer said on Wednesday.
The investor is betting on the rapid growth of online sales of glasses, which is chipping away business from traditional opticians such as Germany's leading Fielmann and Apollo Optik branded chains.
In 2013, Mister Spex' sales rose to 48 million euros ($56.73 million) from 26 million in the year earlier and the company expects to post a double-digit growth in 2014.
That compares with Fielmann's expected 6 percent sales growth to 1.2 billion euros in 2014. The Hamburg-based group does not sell its product over the Internet.
Goldman Sachs' merchant banking division as well as investors like Scottish Equity Partners, DN Capital and XAnge are injecting 32 million euros into Mister Spex, the company said. The money will be used for expansion in Germany and abroad.
"An IPO is an option, although not in the near future," Mister Spex Chief Executive Dirk Graber told German daily Welt, according to an advance release of its Thursday edition.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
(Reporting by Arno Schuetze, editing by Louise Heavens)
