The 28-year-old Rivers shoe and clothing retailer has been bought by Specialty Fashion Group for USD5 million. Specialty is the biggest women's fashion retailer in Australia, according to Brisbane Times.

Gary Perlstein, chief executive of Specialty, said of the acquisition, "It's one of those rare and fortunate circumstances where there was a motivated seller. We got a phone call and as a result we were able to achieve what we think is a very good value acquisition price."

Perlstein denied suggestions that Rivers was sold for a low price because of debt woes. The fashion giant said it plans to expand the number of Rivers Australia outlets from 160 to 220, the report said.

Specialty will put in a USD4 million investment on annualized basis by 2015. Until then, Rivers is not expected to contribute to the company's earnings, the report stated.

The fashion group currently has a customer base of 7 million. Rivers, on the other hand, has several hundred thousand customers. For the fiscal year of 2014, Rivers had an estimated revenue of USD180 million, Brisbane Times reported.