N Brown has agreed to a takeover deal by the Alliance family for a cash consideration of £191m.

The fashion retail firm, which owns brands including Simply Be and Jacamo, employs around 1,700 people in the UK.

It saw its revenue drop by 9.8% in its last full financial year, which it attributed to "continued challenging market conditions".

The firm added that the impact of cost of living pressures had been evident in customers’ buying behaviour, and had also led to the revenue drop.

As part of the deal, Joshua Alliance will pay 40 pence for each N Brown share which is not already owned by the family.

The directors at N Brown said the cash offer represents an "attractive opportunity" for an immediate cash return for shareholders at a "significant premium" to the recent trading price.

The Guardian reported that following the acquisition announcement, N Brown shares increased by more than 40%.

The deal comes after N Brown embarked on a strategy to "transform and grow" the business, through building a differentiated portfolio across a range of brands, transforming the customer experience and growing a customer base through its existing core customer, high value lapsed customers and a "new, younger generation".

In a statement, Joshua Alliance said that his family had been supporters of N Brown for over half a century and that the transaction would support the firm in "accelerating its long-term growth potential" and provide access to additional capital, expertise and resource to accelerate N Brown’s "longer-term potential".

Investment director at AJ Bell, Russ Mould, added: "N Brown has had a difficult time on the stock market over the past 10 years, losing a significant amount of value. It has struggled with fierce competition, tired brands, legal issues, over-estimating the opportunity for plus-sized fashion and for a while seemed to make more money from interest on customer credit than it did from selling clothes.

"Many investors gave up on the stock a long time ago so it’s a surprise N Brown has lasted this long as a listed entity."

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