Sycamore Said Near Purchase of Lingerie Brand Hunkemoeller

Sycamore Partners, a U.S. private equity firm, is nearing an agreement to buy Dutch lingerie brand Hunkemoeller from PAI Partners, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Sycamore had been competing against other buyout firms including Carlyle Group, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Hunkemoeller may fetch about 440 million euros ($482 million), one of the people said. Talks are ongoing and could still fall apart.

European private-equity firms have been busy exiting investments, but have struggled to find new targets, with deal volumes almost unchanged from the previous year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. PAI, a Paris-based buyout firm, bought Hunkemoeller, the largest lingerie brand in the Benelux region and Germany, in 2010 for 265 million euros.

Spokesmen for PAI Partners and Sycamore Partners declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Hunkemoeller.

Deals involving private equity buyers or sellers in Europe totaled about $166 billion this year, compared with $168 billion in the same period last year, the data show.

Hunkemoeller was founded in 1886 in Amsterdam by Wilhelm Hunkemoeller and his wife Josephina Lexis, and now has about 2,700 employees and more than 600 stores in 16 countries, according to the company’s website.

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An Exclusive First Look at Carolyn Murphy’s Lingerie Collection for CheekFrills

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Despite the fact that Carolyn Murphy looks better in lingerie at 40 than most girls do in their 20s, a bra and underwear collaboration isn’t quite what you’d expect from the model. Having been “a Vogue girl” in the ’90s, she’s the first to admit she preferred fashion spreads over push-up bras. But after having a daughter—who’s now 14 and shopping for bras of her own—and “gaining a few more curves,” she became a self-confessed connoisseur. She even channeled her passion into designing a new collection of all-natural, feminine lingerie for CheekFrills, which hits Net-a-Porter this Friday. Murphy spoke to Style.com exclusively about the collaboration.

“I did the swimsuit cover of Sports Illustrated in 2005 and absolutely loathed it,” she said with a laugh. “I was like, ‘I’m not this kind of model!’ But that’s why lingerie is an exciting venture for me.” Over dinner with CheekFrills founder Katie Canvin, conversation shifted to raising daughters and the lingerie that’s available to them, and the idea for Murphy’s feminine, easy-to-wear collection was born. “I think lingerie is almost as important as using the right creams. It’s how you work up into your day and get ready,” she explained. “It should be personal. I really wanted to focus on comfort, but also on that subtle femininity and not having it be so overtly sexual. Sensuality is so personal, and it should be quite delicate.”

Murphy stressed the importance of natural materials, opting for soft wood-pulp modal with comfortable lace details, natural dyes, and zero wires (which are painful, for starters, and have been linked to breast cancer in some studies). A second collaboration is already in the works: “Now I’m obsessed,” Murphy said. “I’m taking pictures to use as references and am thinking about vintage lace and satins that feel really beautiful on the body…It’s a saturated market, just like everything these days. But there’s no reason not to play with it a little.” Click through the slideshow for an exclusive glimpse at the collection and Murphy’s campaign images.

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