Casablanca was sold for "corporate restructuring"

In a new move aimed at brand expansion, the parent company of Casablanca, Charaf Tajer's brand, has changed hands from being Casablanca Clothing Ltd. to Casablanca Paris Ltd. It is unclear whether this is a true buy-out, although the transaction appears to be a simple one of a change of investors and the identity of the majority investor is not yet crystal clear. According to documents made available by the British Chamber of Commerce, David John William Bailey and Paul Rakkar appear to be the new directors of the company Casablanca Clothing Ltd. along with Tajer, who is in charge of creative direction; while John Lewis Norris and Kevin Gate are the directors of Casablanca Paris Ltd. the majority of whose shares are owned by a company named CBPARIS Group Ltd. which is in turn owned by the investment fund Imva Limited whose majority shareholder is Martin Nevil Rowley.

The operation, according to Fashion Network, concerns a «recapitalisation restructure that will further strengthen and empower the successful incumbent creative team with new investment to continue the brand’s eye-catching growth». According to Kevin Gate, director of Casablanca Paris Ltd. on the other hand: «This is all about supporting the company and the brand, and most of all, the immensely talented and creative team, which clearly has great strength in depth. We plan to invest heavily to continue their amazing achievements as they grow the Casablanca feeling around the world to our dedicated army of fans. We’ll continue collaborating with all our industry stakeholders and are very excited about our new investment.». Tajer is thus expected to remain in creative leadership, although it is unclear whether he has remained the actual owner of the brand and especially what share of the company he owns.