TJX, Bluestar Eye Jones New York

TJX Cos. Inc. and brand management firm Bluestar Alliance are each interested in acquiring the Jones New York brand. The two made overtures to private equity firm Sycamore Partners last month following the announcement that operations for the brand were being shuttered. On Jan. 29, Sycamore said that it would “pursue strategic alternatives” for the business. Discussions so far are preliminary and in the explorative stage, financial and market sources said. The JNY brand was acquired by Sycamore when it bought parent company The Jones Group, formerly Jones Apparel Group, last year for $2.2 billion. The business is in wind-down mode. The brand is still being sold at retail, with the wind-down expected to conclude before the end of this year. Market sources said that Sycamore, when it bought Jones Group, placed an estimated valuation on the brand that was north of the $400 million range. The current asking price is $400 million, according to financial sources. While JNY was a sizable business occupying substantial real estate on the department store sales floor, financial sources said the shutdown of operations drops the valuation to less than $100 million, and likely substantially less than that. That’s because any buyer would be purchasing just the

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