City Chic has lost its bid to acquire the eCommerce assets of US womenswear chain Catherines.
In July, City Chic completed a $110 million equity raise and was nominated as the stalking horse bidder for Catherines' digital assets.
The sale was part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process by The Ascenia Group, with City Chic putting US$16 million on the table.
This week, City Chic confirmed it had not been successful in winning the court-run auction for the eCommerce assets of Catherines.
The winning bidder Fullbeauty Brands more than doubled its offer at US$40.8 million.
City Chic CEO Phil Ryan said despite the acquisition's strategic merits, the winning bid was above City Chic’s assessment of the value of those assets.
"Although it was disappointing not to win the assets at auction we have a very good understanding of the plus-size market and the value of the assets and we did not want to overpay.
"We have a focused strategy to grow our global digital presence and will execute this strategy through our extensive organic growth program and evaluating any inorganic opportunities on their merits.
"Given current market conditions we continue to see opportunities to add brands to our collective and more aggressively take market share organically."
This is not the retailer's first move in the acquisition space, having acquired Avenue and Hips & Curves businesses in 2019.