Multiply Group: Who is the new owner of Tendam, and how will it boost its value?

Business|In Depth

Jaume Miquel, presidente and chief executive officer of Tendam, alongside Samia Bouazza, chief executive officer and managing director of Multiply Group, during the signing of the agreement. Credits: Multiply Group.

Madrid – The Spanish fashion scene, and potentially the international fashion scene, was shaken on February 25, 2025, following the unexpected announcement and official confirmation that Emirati company Multiply Group had become the new dominant shareholder in Tendam Group. The Spanish fashion multinational, which owns chains such as Cortefiel, Springfield, and Women’secret, ended its nearly 20-year period under the ownership of investment funds CVC Funds and PAI Partners, and began a new chapter under the control of a new investment partner. But who are the company’s new owners, and, more importantly, how will they try to increase its value?

Founded in 2003 in Abu Dhabi as a marketing and communications consultancy under the name Multiply Marketing Consultancy, the Emirati company gradually underwent a unique process of growth and diversification of its business model, increasingly focusing on new technologies. The success of this strategy led it to transition from a "passive" agent using these technologies for its consultancy operations to an "active" investor in the same sector. This eventually caught the attention of Emirati investment firm International Holding Company (IHC). IHC, founded in 1998 with the backing of the Abu Dhabi royal family under the name Asmak, aimed to contribute to the diversification and promotion of non-oil-related commercial sectors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It acquired 100 percent of Multiply Marketing Consultancy in 2020.

Following its acquisition and incorporation into IHC’s portfolio of strategic assets, IHC, currently controlled by Royal Group, the investment company linked to the Abu Dhabi royal family which owns a 60 percent stake, wasted no time in consolidating and boosting the value of Multiply. Firstly, by giving it a greater identity through a thorough and complete restructuring of the asset and investment portfolio of both companies, an operation that resulted in Multiply Marketing Consultancy, from then on Multiply Group, receiving the bulk of the assets, both those previously held by IHC and new acquisitions, which are currently managed under its umbrella. Secondly, by announcing on November 29, 2021, its spin-off from IHC and its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), as the eighth IHC subsidiary in less than a year to begin its solo journey as a new listed company.

The company undertook this stock market launch on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on December 5, 2021, with shares priced at an initial 1.11 UAE dirhams, experiencing an outstanding revaluation during that first session, closing the day with an increase of 80 percent to 2 dirhams per share. Its shares were revalued by up to 357 percent above this initial price, reaching a peak of 5.08 dirhams in November 2022, but currently, they are only up 55 percent, closing the trading session on Friday, March 7, 2025, at just 1.73 dirhams per share.

Multiply Group: A company under control of IHC and Abu Dhabi royal family

Despite this IPO, Multiply Group has remained under the control of IHC, which acquired it in late 2020 and currently holds approximately 57.81 percent of the company’s capital and shares. The Abu Dhabi royal family’s investment company exercises this representation within Multiply’s Board of Directors, with Syed Basar Shueb, chief executive officer of IHC since 2019, serving as chairman of Multiply’s Board, contributing his strategic vision to the operations of a group that, on the executive side, remains under the leadership of Samia Bouazza, managing director and chief executive officer of Multiply since 2021, following the company’s acquisition by IHC.

Under this strategic and executive leadership, led respectively by Basar Shueb and Bouazza, Multiply Group closed its latest financial year of 2024, completed on December 31 of the same year, reporting total revenues of 2 billion dirhams, approximately 421 million pounds at the current exchange rate. This amount represents an increase of 56 percent compared to the 1.29 billion dirhams in revenue during the previous year, and marks the first time the company has broken the 2 billion dirhams revenue barrier.

Despite this significant revenue growth, the Emirati company reported a net profit of only 189 million dirhams, approximately 39.8 million pounds at the current exchange rate, at the close of the financial year. This figure represents a decrease of 65 percent compared to the 551.98 million UAE dirhams profit recorded at the close of the 2023 financial year. They justified this decrease by citing high market volatility, which had affected profitability but not, they argued, the "core fundamentals" of the company’s business, which were evident as "solid" and firmly sustained, they claimed, given both the double-digit revenue growth in the range of 56 percent and an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) that reached record highs, soaring to 1,867 million dirhams (plus 15 percent).

Based on these strengths, Multiply Group added that following the investments made in 2024, with approximately 1 billion dirhams used to complete three "strategic" acquisitions, including increasing its capital in advertising company BackLite Media to 100 percent; the purchase, through its beauty subsidiary Omorfia Group, of 100 percent of The Grooming Company Holding, a UAE supplier of beauty and hairdressing products; and the purchase of 51 percent of Dubai’s Excellence Premier Investment driver training centre, the investment holding, at the close of 2024, had more than 2 billion dirhams in cash, or cash equivalents, at its disposal. The company stated that, far from stopping there, it had the capacity to sustain total investments of approximately 4 billion UAE dirhams—approximately 842 million pounds at the current exchange rate—to ensure the future growth of the investment group.

From a more general perspective, this is the strategy that has underpinned the outstanding growth, both organic and inorganic, experienced by the Emirati company in recent years. Following this approach, with the opening of the new chapter of this same "growth" investment strategy coinciding with the opening of its new 2025 financial year, and leveraging the investment capacity it had at the close of 2024, it has now agreed to enter Tendam, acquiring 67.91 percent of the share capital—via capital increase—of the Spanish fashion multinational. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed, but it is part of the 1 billion euros investment capacity that the Emirati group’s management displayed at the close of its last full annual financial year of 2024.

Five strategic ‘verticals’

Given these general figures with which Multiply closed its latest 2024 financial year, the natural question that arises is obvious: where do these revenues and profits come from, and how does Multiply operate in the market? To answer these questions, we will now focus on how the Emirati company’s business model is structured. An investment holding that, in keeping with its nature, seeks to generate value for its shareholders in the short, medium, and long term through investment operations that are divided into two distinct investment branches: Multiply and Multiply+.

Regarding each of these, under the umbrella of Multiply investments, Multiply Group seeks to secure its long-term value generation through strategic investments in various sectors analysed as key to the sustained growth of the company and its balance sheets. They currently have a total of five verticals for these operations, from which they make and maintain investments in the "Media" sectors, owning advertising company BackLite Media, outdoor advertising company Media 247, and marketing and communications agency Viola Communications; in "Mobility," through Emirates Driving Company, the only company authorised to provide road safety education in Abu Dhabi; in the "Beauty and Wellness" sector, through an Omorfia group under whose umbrella the investment company operates a dozen of its own brands and chains in the sector, such as beauty and body care salon chain Bedashing Beauty Lounge, international manicure and pedicure chain N.Bar, and beauty salons The Juice Beauty; in the "Energy and Public Services" sector, owning Emirati company PAL Cooling Holding, which specialises in the supply of chilled water for air conditioning systems, and approximately 80 percent of Emirati group International Energy Holding (IEH), which specialises in strategic investments in the energy sector and owns 50 percent of Turkish renewable energy company Kalyon Enerji Yatırımları; and in the "Retail and Fashion" sector. This fifth and final vertical is the one that the Emirati investment group has just launched, precisely through the acquisition of the majority stake in Spanish company Tendam, formerly known as Grupo Cortefiel before adopting its new name in April 2018.

On the other hand, in its Multiply+ investment portfolio, the Emirati group makes capital investments that present a high level of interest and potential return on investment, with significant value generation, regardless of pre-established deadlines for the return of invested funds and the sector in which these "opportunities" to invest arise. These investments lack the "strategic" value of the acquisitions and investments made from the Multiply investment portfolio, and the Emirati group carries them out mainly through the acquisition of minority stakes in both private and listed companies. To date, its main investments in this category include minority stakes in TAQA (Abu Dhabi National Energy Company), the energy company controlled by the government and the Abu Dhabi royal family, which has long been considering a future "assault" on Spanish company Naturgy; in Yieldmo, a New York-based technology company specialising in digital advertising; in Breakwater Energy, the subsidiary owned by US investment firm EIG Global Energy Partners created to acquire a 25 percent stake in the exploration and production subsidiary of Spanish hydrocarbon company Repsol, Repsol Upstream; in well-known US company Getty Images, which specialises in the sale and distribution of graphic material; and in Savage x Fenty, Rihanna’s lingerie brand.

Multiply Group became a minority partner in this brand, founded and launched by the Barbados singer in 2018, investing 92 million UAE dirhams, approximately 19.61 million pounds at the exchange rate at the time, in 2022, attracted by the rapid growth that the lingerie firm was already experiencing, whose advocacy for inclusion and positioning as a champion of the "Body Positive" movement, combined with an eminently digital business model, aligned perfectly "with our investment strategies," Multiply argued at the time.

Tendam: An ‘anchor’ company for fashion and retail operations

With Savage x Fenty as its main, and to our knowledge, only precedent for its investments in fashion, at least since 2022 when it acquired a stake in the lingerie firm, Multiply Group has reportedly been considering various alternatives to open a new fashion and retail vertical from which to continue diversifying its investment operations, such as the one it has just opened following the acquisition of this majority stake in Tendam, and according to what Multiply Group’s chief executive officer, Samia Bouazza, highlighted on the occasion of the announcement of the transaction. When assessing the acquisition, Bouazza pointed to three strategic objectives that Multiply was able to advance with the purchase of this majority stake in Tendam: to underpin double-digit EBITDA growth; to continue advancing the global expansion and positioning of the investment group; and to finally enter the retail and fashion sector, "which we have been targeting and believe has significant growth potential."

From here, and regarding how the Spanish fashion multinational will now perform with Multiply as the new dominant shareholder in its capital, it is first necessary to emphasise that the Emirati group will now take the reins of the company and will lead the "next phase of growth" that Tendam is now entering. The Emirati investment group has made it clear that this new chapter will be aimed at promoting greater international expansion and further developing the "omnichannel ecosystem" of Tendam and its various brands in its portfolio, which includes the fashion chains and firms Cortefiel, Pedro del Hierro, Springfield, Women’secret, Hoss Intropia, Slowlove, High Spirits, Dash and Stars, Ooto, Hi&Bye, and the outlet chain for the group’s brands, Fifty.

Beyond these more or less general indications, coinciding with the official presentation of Multiply’s acquisition of 67.91 percent of Tendam, or more precisely of Castellano Investments, the company through which the CVC Funds and PAI Partners funds controlled 100 percent of the ownership of the Spanish company and its subsidiaries, the Emirati investment fund indicated that its intention was to enter the strategic sectors of the retail and fashion industries through this transaction, with Tendam as the "anchor" company of this new vertical. This term, far from being generic, has a very specific meaning within and for Multiply’s investment operations; to the point where it is precisely through this term that it is revealed how the Emirati investment group intends to continue expanding Tendam’s portfolio, as they formalise new investments or purchases of fashion firms and/or retail chains, which will be framed under the umbrella of the Spanish company.

Between ‘anchors’ and ‘bolts’

To try to visualise how Tendam will play its role within Multiply from now on, and how the Emirati company will seek to continue boosting its value, the investment group, with regard to its "strategic value" operations, maintains an investment strategy aimed at acquiring leading companies with the capacity to generate cash and value, both through their own operations and through the establishment of synergies with other companies in the group. As a starting point for these operations, they differentiate between "Anchor" companies, the category under which Tendam is placed, and "Bolt" companies. These are two different identities, just as different are the purposes and destinations that Multiply reserves for each of the companies it frames under each of them.

Regarding "Anchor" companies, such as Tendam, the main reason for the investment is Multiply Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in a large company that occupies a leading position within a sector of interest, in this case the fashion and retail industry. The investment criteria include that the majority stake can be agreed at a figure close to 1 billion UAE dirhams, approximately 213.38 million pounds at the current exchange rate, and that the company subject to the investment has strong revenue growth, a double-digit internal rate of return (IRR) target, and healthy accounts. Meeting, among other things, all these requirements, Multiply makes the investment to develop its new vertical from this "Anchor" company; a vertical that they build and try to shape through the acquisition of complementary companies that can serve to reinforce the general operations of that "Anchor" company, as well as promoting the digitalisation of its operations on a large scale.

Meanwhile, regarding "Bolt" companies, these are companies in which Multiply takes a significant stake, which does not have to be a majority stake, and which have the potential to add value and generate synergies with the "Anchor" companies. The focus of these investment operations is also on companies with the capacity to generate added value for the Group, a positive cash flow, and that are profitable from their main operations, thus serving to reinforce and amplify the capabilities and development of the "Anchor" companies. In this way, Multiply seeks to promote and grow these umbrella companies constantly, through the strengthening of their own operations and the reinforcement of these through investments in these other "Bolt" companies, from a "maturity" phase of their investment, from which they then give way to a final "exit" stage.

For this point, once the planned objectives have been achieved, Multiply proposes, as a general guideline, either the sale of its stake or the IPO of the "Anchor" company in question. This was an operation that, in the case of Tendam, seemed to have been ruled out with the entry of the Emirati group into its capital, but which, according to the roadmap that Multiply manages for its investments, seems to be on Tendam’s future horizon again. However, this is on a much more distant horizon than was presumed before the entry of the Emirati investment group, and it will now be interesting to discover how they are approaching it from Multiply, through the realisation of these value-building strategies that they will implement within the Spanish fashion multinational.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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