Nordstrom Sells Façonnable to….the Lebanese?

Seattle-based Nordstom (NYSE:JWN) has decided to sell its Façonnable brand to the Lebanese investment firm M1 Group for $210 million. As part of the deal, Nordstrom agrees to sell Façonnable clothing for a further 3 years, and will use the proceeds to focus on its main business, retailing, as opposed to brand-building. Façonnable, a conservative luxury clothier that competes against the likes of Brooks Brothers, was long known to be on the auction block; the acquirer, however, is the surprise here. M1 Group (formerly Investcom) was the first company to IPO on the recently-opened Dubai International Finance Exchange and primarily owns wireless networks in third world countries like Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Afghanistan, Guinea Republic, and Sudan. Wait a minute….REWIND. Sudan? As in Darfur’s federal overlord? A third-world cellular operator buying falling-star luxury marque? Something smells fishy here. Upon further inspection, the real owner is Mauritius-based MTN Group, which bought Investcom (and hence M1 Group) last year. MTN Group operates mostly in South Africa, and is also in the cellular business. It’s all a tangled mess of ownership from there, involving shady tax shelters in the Virgin Islands. Could this get any weirder?

Anyone have any idea why a cellular business in the third world would want to buy a slightly-lagging shirtmaker? Is this deal really even going to go through?

Article at PSBJ via FashionInvestor.com