PhillyDeals: David's Bridal to be acquired by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice

David's Bridal Inc., which calls itself the largest bridal-gown and wedding-accessories retailer in the United States, said Tuesday that the New York buyout firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice has agreed to buy control of the 300-store chain, based in Conshohocken, for a price that values the business at $1.05 billion.

The current owner, Leonard Green & Partners, of Los Angeles, will stay on as a minority investor. Bank of America leads a group of Wall Street lenders financing the deal.

It will be the fourth time David's has been sold since boss Robert D. "Bob" Huth took over as chief executive in 1999. "They're all different," Huth, 66, told me. "But they all like performance. They all reward performance."

How do we measure performance? The price is more than the $750 million that the Leonard Green firm paid the company that owns Macy's for David's in 2006, before the recession, or the $401 million that Macy's predecessor paid to take David's private in 2001. Cofounder Steven Erlbaum sold a stake for about $94 million in an initial public offering in 1999, according to data from Bloomberg L.P.

"They bought us for one reason: We're a profitable company with good growth prospects," Huth said. Clayton Dubilier endorsed and has agreed to fund David's year-old expansion plan, which calls for opening stores in the United Kingdom and adding smaller, upmarket stores in wealthier U.S. communities "where we haven't had our fair share," Huth added.

"The retail market for bridal has changed," Huth told me. "The number of weddings in the U.S. went down in the 2008-09 recession."

The number of "marriage-age" women is growing, Huth explained, but unemployment remains high and a lot of middle-income budgets are tight. So "we have been repositioning ourselves as more of a fashion house," pushing staff designers' dresses," he added. The investors "see an opportunity to move up the market" in places such as Ardmore on the Main Line, Atlanta's Buckhead section, and Scottsdale, Ariz.

David's employs more than 12,000 in the United States and Canada, including a total of more than 750 at its Conshohocken headquarters and warehouse and its Bristol distribution center.

The buyers named former Gap chief executive and Disney executive Paul Pressler, a Clayton Dubilier partner, to be David's chairman once the deal closes, which is supposed to happen late this year.

Besides its own designs, David's sells dresses licensed by the Vera Wang and Oleg Cassini design houses, among others, and works with a network of local wedding-service vendors; it is thinking of building up its own photography staff.

I asked Huth whether this latest deal puts him closer to retirement. He laughed. "Oleg Cassini told me his most productive years were in his 60s and 70s," he told me.

Prime Healthcare Services, the California for-profit chain of 18 mostly West Coast hospitals that recently acquired Roxborough Memorial Hospital, says it also plans to take over the 156-bed Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol.

Prime will spend $10 million "at a minimum" for "needed capital improvements," company spokesman Edward Barrera told me.

Prime, owned by chief executive Dr. Prem Reddy, has also made $3 million in working capital available to Lower Bucks and will "honor all contracts, liabilities, and union agreements," which cover nurses and maintenance workers. Total staff includes 400 doctors and 1,400 employees and volunteers.

Prime specializes in hospitals with "financial problems" that treat poor patients and rely heavily on government reimbursement, said Albert Mezzaroba, the Lower Bucks chief executive who closed the deal. He told me the chain has a history of cutting expenses without canceling medical programs, and gives special attention to bill collection. Mezzaroba said he wasn't sure of Prime's long-term plans concerning his role.

Lower Bucks filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010 and exited earlier this year after state officials agreed to use $14 million in future table-games revenue from the Parx Casino in nearby Bensalem to repay part of the hospital's bond debt.