Crocs CEO McCarvel to Retire as Blackstone Invests $200 Million
Bloomberg News
Chief Executive Officer John McCarvel will retire and will invest $200 million in convertible preferred stock as the maker of colorful plastic clogs struggles to regain lost popularity.
The shoemaker will use the funds to increase stock repurchases to $350 million, according to an e-mailed statement from the Niwot, Colorado-based company. McCarvel will step down on or about April 30.
Crocs has been trying to revive its fortunes after consumers tired of its trademark clogs, knockoffs cut into sales and U.S. consumer spending slumped. The Blackstone investment comes after Crocs attempted to find a buyer for the whole company, people familiar with the situation said in November.
'We've been unable to repurchase stock while negotiating this transaction, but we now expect to do so beginning in the first quarter of 2014,' Jeff Lasher, chief financial officer, said in the statement. The buybacks are intended to reduce publicly traded common stock by about 30 percent, Lasher said.
McCarvel, who took the helm in March 2010, expanded the company's products to include other styles of shoes and opening new stores. The shares dropped 7.4 percent this year, compared with a 29 percent gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
Calls to Crocs and Blackstone seeking comment were not immediately returned outside U.S. business hours.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dave McCombs in Tokyo at dmccombs@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net
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