US fashion group Guess is reportedly about to exit the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), nearly 30 years after listing. The group, owner of the Guess, Guess Jeans, Marciano and Rag & Bone labels, announced it has received an offer for the purchase of a majority of its shares by US investment firm WHP Global on Monday March 17.

According to a press release from Guess, WHP Global, which bought Dutch denim brand G-Star in 2023, has put forward “a non-binding proposal to acquire through its subsidiary WHP Investments the outstanding Guess shares at $13.00 per share, with the exception of the shares held by some existing shareholders, including Paul Marciano, Maurice Marciano and Guess CEO Carlos Alberini.”

The Marciano brothers, who moved to the USA from France in the late 1970s, founded Guess in 1981 in California as a denim label. In time, Guess made a name for itself thanks to its glam collections and high-impact advertising campaigns, especially in the 1990s and 2000s.

For the fiscal year ended on February 4, 2024, Guess reported net sales of $2.77 billion, and an operating profit of $263 million. Guess is listed on NYSE, where its share price peaked on October 17, 2007, at $50.38. After losing ground in the following decade, the group’s share price plummeted during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has bounced back since then.

The share price for Guess was $9.70 at the latest market close in New York. WHP Global’s offer is therefore equivalent to a 34% premium, valuing the Los Angeles-based company at nearly half a billion dollars, and enabling it to exit the stock market. The fiscal 2023-24 results report indicated that Paul and Maurice Marciano held a 46% stake in the group, which directly operates more than 1,000 stores worldwide, plus nearly another 550 operated with retail partners.

In its press release, Guess said it has set up an independent committee to analyse WHP Global’s bid. The two groups began to collaborate more closely last year, when WHP Global partnered with Guess in the acquisition of premium New York denim brand Rag & Bone. On Friday, Guess and WHP Global said they had signed an accessories license deal with the Signal group, a long-standing partner of Guess.