Year: 2007

Industry: Apparel, Footwear & Accessories, Specialty Retail

Service: Buy-Side M&A

Geography: North America

Financial Advisor to Payless on Acquisition of Stride Rite

Payless ShoeSource, the largest specialty family footwear retailer in the Western Hemisphere, hired Financo to help execute a transformative acquisition strategy that would prepare Payless to further develop into a multi-brand, multi-channel global footwear platform.  In consummating the $900 million accretive acquisition of Stride Rite, the company would benefit from increased size and scale.

In addition to acquisition advisory, Financo worked closely with financing sources to help Payless secure an efficient capital structure of the newly formed combined entity, which was renamed Collective Brands.

  • 2007

This transaction was completed prior to Raymond James’ acquisition of Financo.